T1        O 


• 


THE  GOLD  FISH  of 
GRAN  CHIMU 


By  the  same  Author 
MY  FRIEND  WILL 

Small    18mo,    illustrated 
75  cents  net 

THE  SPANISH  PIONEERS 

Nine  full  -  page  illustra 
tions,  12mo      .       $1.00 


A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS      CHICAGO 


In  a  smother  of   mud  and  water   Gonzalo   went 
whirling  into  the  abyss.    •  [Page  109] 


The  Gold  Fish 
of  Gran  Chimii 

By 

CHARLES  F.  LUMMIS 

Author  of  "The  Spanish  Pioneers  of 
America,"    "My  Friend  Will,"  etc 


ILLUSTRATED 


CHICAGO 

A.   C.    McCLURG    &    CO. 
1911 


Copyright,  1911 
A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 

Published  March,  1911 


The  Caslon  Press 

Chicago 


TS 


WA-U-WI     WI-WAI 


THE  GOLD  FISH  OF 
GRAN  CHIMU 

CHAPTER  I 
An   Oppressive  Law 

"AND  what  says  the  Se'or  Bullfighter?" 
./~V  queried  Gonzalo,  anxiously. 

"Say?  I  say  abur!  If  they  pass  this 
grand-larceny  of  a  law,  much  good  may  it 
do  them  !  Snails !  But  they  fear  to  sleep, 
lest  some  one  have  time  to  forget  how 
many  varieties  of  imbecile  a  Peruvian  Con 
gress  can  be." 

" Pero,  Se'or,  what  imports  it?  Even 
though  they  make  the  law,  it  would  not 
be  hard  to — to  compose  the  Prefect  or  to 


The  gratify  the  soldiers,  so  that  one  might  dig 

Gold  Fish  none  the  less."  It  was  Franco  who  said 
of  Gran  this,  with  a  foxy  twinkle  in  his  thin,  light 
Chimu  face. 

"No!"  replied  the  Bullfighter,  sharply. 
"It  is  a  fool's  law,  a  thief's  law  —  but  if  they 
pass  it,  there  it  is.  When  I'm  in  a  country 
I  obey  its  laws,  crazy  though  they  be.  If 
Congress  shows  its  ears,  we  will  do  no  more 
digging,  that's  all.  I  would  sooner  the  whole 
expedition  failed  than  either  break  their  law 
or  be  robbed  by  it.  It  hasn't  even  the  sense 
to  be  funny.  If  it  were  possible  to  exhaust 
the  mummies,  as  they've  exhausted  the  guano 
and  the  mines,  it  would  be  right  to  protect 
them;  but  all  the  people  in  Peru,  digging  a 
hundred  .years,  could  hardly  make  a  begin 
ning  on  the  antiquities,  much  less  finish 
them.  Bah !  When  the  Chileans  come,  these 
gentlemen  cannot  find  roads  enough  to  run 
away  by.  When  a  president  has  stolen  only 
five  millions,  they  re-elect  him  to  steal  an 
other  five.  But  when  a  Peruvian  or  a  for 
eigner  dares  to  be  a  scholar  —  veremos!  " 

With  this  outburst  he  rose  from  the  block 
of  adobe  upon  which  he  had  been  sitting, 


filled  his  capacious  lungs  with  a  jerk,  as  if  An 
he  were  rather  angry  at  the  Peruvian  air,  too,    Oppres- 
and  strode  off  around  the  corner  of  a  huge  wall  five  Law 
that  shielded  them  from  the  tropic  sun. 

"  But  he  is  a  so-little  revolutionary,  no,  this 
Se'or  Yanqui?"  observed  Franco  in  a  low  tone, 
looking  to  see  that  the  Yanqui  had  well  gone. 

"How  revolutionary,  thou?  Did  he  not 
say  he  would  mind  the  law,  bad  though  it 
be?  Claro,  that  he  is  angry  now  —  and 
who  can  make  strange?  Here  they  have 
come,  he  and  the  Maestro,  thousands  of  miles, 
and  spending  money  like  the  sands  of  the 
pampa;  and  of  a  sudden  our  Congress  would 
prevent  them.  Yet,  even  angry,  he  says  'no 
more  digging.'  Is  that  seditious?  As  for 
saying  fools  and  thieves,  what  else  do  we  say? 
Do  not  our  own  papers  write  'We  Peruasnos,1 
that  serve  for  nothing  except  to  be  robbed  '  ?  " 

"  And  he,  also,  is  an  asno  —  for  they  might 
well  dig  in  spite  of  the  law.  All  know  the 
Prefect,  that  he  has  his  lean  side;  and  it 
were  easy  to  make  that  the  huaqueando 2  go 

*  A  sarcastic  jumbling  of  Peruano  and  asno,  like  say 
ing  "  Peruviasses  "  instead  of  Peruvians. 
1  The  specific  word  for  mummy-mining. 

[J] 


The  on,  with  soldiers  to  watch,  —  yet  getting  not 

Gold  Fish  much   for  the  government.      With  a  good 
of  Gran   gratification   to   the   Prefect,  and   now  and 
Chimu       then  a  sol  to  the  guards  —  pooh,  they  would 
be  blind  as  Beggar  Juan ! " 

"  Without  shame !  When  the  strangers  for 
their  own  interest  will  not  sneak,  how  should 
a  Peruvian?  They  are  right,  and  I  will  stop 
too,  when  comes  the  law.  Truly,  I  know  not 
what  we  shall  do,  for  now  there  is  nothing 
else  but  mummy-mining  —  but  no  huaquero 
could  make  the  livelihood  as  they  order. 
Ea  !  But  perhaps  it  will  not  endure  —  for 
laws  come  and  go.  My  father  has  told  me 
when  there  were  laws  here  against  carriages, 
and  against  capes,  and  the  women's  shawls 

—  and  even  that  Indians  should  not  eat  cu 
cumbers.1   But  they  were  not  for  long.     Per 
haps  even  so  this  ill  law  will  last  not  much 

—  or,  quizd  they  will  not  pass  it  after  all. 
But  vamos — I  think  the  Maestro  will   be 
ready  to  measure  again.     He  said  to  come 
to  the  Bewitched  Fig." 

The  Bullfighter  was  headed  for  the  same 

1 A  real  decree  of  the  Duque  de  Palata,  viceroy  of 
Peni,  about  1680. 


spot;  his  brow  wrinkled  up  and  down,  and  An 
fists  clenching  now  and  then  as  he  jumped  Oppres- 
arroyos  and  clambered  over  ruined  walls,  sive  Law 
He  was  not  really  a  bullfighter  at  all,  of 
course,  or  he  never  would  have  been  in  the 
Gran  Chimu.  But  his  bronzed  face  was  clean 
shaven;  and  in  Peru  no  one  except  a  toreador 
or  a  priest  would  think  of  exposing  himself 
without  so  much  as  a  moustache.  As  priests 
do  not  wear  hunting  boots  and  corduroy 
jackets,  it  was  plain  that  this  Yanqui  must  be 
a  bullfighter;  and  people  in  the  Peruvian 
cities  stepped  down  from  the  narrow  side 
walks  to.  give  him  room,  and  boys  followed 
at  a  respectful  distance,  and  the  clergy  bowed 
courteously  at  meeting  him.  So  it  was  not 
strange  that  every  one  should  continue  to  call 
him  "the  Bullfighter,"  even  after  they  knew 
his  business;  and  that  he  should  accept  the 
nickname  with  his  usual  carelessness  about 
careless  opinions.  He  had  been  mistaken  for 
so  many  different  things,  in  his  wanderings, 
and  this  was  by  so  much  the  least  troublesome 
error,  that  it  rather  pleased  him. 

Emerging  from  a  maze  of  ruined  buildings, 
he  crossed  a  clear,  level  space  faintly  fur- 
[5] 


The  rowed  with  the  strangest  patterns  that  ever  a 

Gold  Fish  plowed  field  bore,  and  presently  came  to  a 
of  Gran    great  pit,  in  the  center  of  which  stood  an 
Chimu       ancient  fig-tree  —  the  only  green  thing   in 
miles  around.     In  its  shade  sat  another  Yan- 
qui,  bending  over  a  paper  covered  with  figures. 
He,  also,  was  clean-shaven  and  bronzed,  but 
much  older,  and  not  to  be  mistaken  for  a 
bullfighter.     Still,  he  was  rather  too  quick- 
footed  for  a  priest;  and  the  country  agreed  in 
calling  him  "the  Master,"  —  vaguely  know 
ing  that  he  was  a  great  scholar,  a  cientifico 
whose  name  was  high  in  both  hemispheres. 
"So!      When   did   you    get    back    from 
Moche?    And  where  are  the  boys?  "  he  said, 
without  looking  up. 

"I  finished  the  pictures  there  last  night. 
The  boys  will  be  here.  I  left  them  in  the 
edge  of  the  second  barrio.  But  say  —  have 
you  heard  about  this  law  Congress  is  going  to 
pass?" 

"Yes,  and  I  had  been  expecting  it.  This 
National  Museum  plan  has  been  in  the  air 
for  years,  but  they  have  not  been  able  to  vote 
money  to  found  it,  for  the  very  good  reason 
that  there  was  no  money.  Now  they  see  a 


way  to  dance  and  let  others  pay  the  piper.   An 
It  is  really  a  polite  manner  of  confiscating    Oppres- 
certain  collections  and  documents  they  have   sive  Law 
long  had  a  jealous  eye  upon  —  and  taking  the 
pick  of  all  future  ones.     I  think,  however, 
they  are   overreaching    themselves.       They 
certainly  shall  not  fatten  on  us;  and  I  doubt 
if  any  one  will  work  under  such  restrictions." 

"Do  you  know  just  what  they  are?  Old 
Quesada  had  not  the  full  details." 

"  It  is  simple  but  effective.  Any  one  who 
wishes  to  dig  for  antiquities  must  notify  the 
Prefect,  who  will  authorize  the  Intendente  to 
detail  a  guard  of  soldiers  to  watch  every  turn  of 
the  digging.  You  feed  and  pay  these  guardias 
out  of  your  own  pocket,  and  they  take  charge 
of  everything  you  find.  One-half  (the  better 
half,  of  course)  is  the  property  of  the  govern 
ment.  Your  half  is  also  taken,  'to  be  photo 
graphed  and  described  for  the  National  Muse 
um.  '  It  is  supposed  to  be  then  returned  to  you 
—  and  may  be  it  will  be.  Furthermore,  you 
will  have  to  give  the  Museum  copies  of  all  your 
photographs,  and  I  of  all  my  ground  plans." 

"  Pestilence !  Well,  it  shuts  the  door  on 
further  excavations,  no?" 

[7] 


The  "Certainly.     We  couldn't  carry  them  on 

Gold  Fish  under  such  conditions  even  in  a  country 
of  Gran  where  we  could  trust  the  government  to  do 
Chimu  its  part.  But  that  is  not  vital.  We  can  con 
tinue  to  excavate  until  the  law  passes,  and 
then  stop.  The  surveys,  measurements, 
photographing  —  all  the  more  important 
work  —  can  still  go  on.  We  have  collections 
enough  for  the  present  —  and,  thank  heaven, 
they  are  all  safely  on  their  way  to  New  York. 
By  the  time  we  need  more,  there  may  be 
better  laws.  Where  it  will  come  hardest  is 
on  Peru  herself  —  on  the  poor  huagueros, 
/  who  have  no  resource  but  mummy-mining. 
^/  That  law  will  make  criminals;  for  many  of 
these  poor  fellows  will  have  to  dig,  and  will 
do  it  furtively,  as  they  cannot  afford  to  'go 
halves '  with  the  government.  Ah,  picaros!  " 
he  added,  with  a  sudden  change  of  tone,  as 
Gonzalo  and  Franco  came  scuffing  down  the 
bank.  "  Why  should  I  not  bump  you  the 
heads,  for  keeping  me  so  long  waiting?" 
His  face  and  speech  were  wholly  severe ;  but 
the  boys  laughed  understandingly.  He  was 
so  droll,  this  wise  Maestro  —  to  whom  the 
learned  listened  with  reverence,  and  whom 
[*] 


the  ignorant  found  even  more  entertaining  An 
than  the  wittiest  of  their  rough  companions.    Oppres- 

" Pues,  Se'or,  now  we  are  ready,"  answered  sive  Law 
Gonzalo,  still  smiling.  "Only  to-morrow, 
and  for  a  few  days,  if  you  will  dispense  with 
us  —  for  there  is  to  be  a  new  law,  ill  for  the 
huagueros,  and  we  would  like  to  dig  what 
can  be  before  it." 

"  Rascals !  Well,  dig  then.  And  that  you 
find  the  Fez  Grande!  But  now,  to  work." 

Franco  took  the  plane-table  and  the  sur 
veyor's  level,  Gonzalo  the  tripod  and  the 
little  side-satchel  of  notes,  and  the  three 
clambered  out  of  the  big  pits,  trudging  away 
through  the  sands  toward  a  huge  wall  that 
stood  off  to  the  northwest. 

"Until  soon!"  said  the  Bullfighter,  look 
ing  at  his  watch.  "I'm  going  over  to  the 
Hall  of  the  Arabesques  to  study  the  light  a 
little,  —  the  shadows  in  that  last  photograph 
didn't  suit  me." 

"  Much  eye,  then !  "  called  back  Franco, 
twisting  his  sharp  face  over  his  shoulder. 
"  For  there,  many  say,  is  the  hiding-place  of 
the  Fez  Grande.11 

"  Bother  your  Big  Fish !     If  you  Peruvians 


The  would  dig  your  fields  half  as  hard  as  you  dig 

Gold  Fish  for  that  treasure,  you  wouldn't  need  any  wind- 
of  Gran  falls.  Not  but  I'd  like  to  stumble  on  the 
Chimu  tail  of  him,  myself,"  smiled  the  Bullfighter, 
as  he  strode  away  to  the  southeast.  "He 
must  be  a  very  pretty  lump,  when  the  Little 
Fish  was  such  a  whopper.  But  plain  huacos 
are  good  enough  for  me,  —  personally  I 
don't  care  to  get  a  touch  of  the  golden  fever." 
The  others  had  already  disappeared  be 
hind  the  great  wall,  as  he  went  scrambling 
over  mounds  of  crumbled  adobe  masonry  — 
the  ruins  of  prehistoric  homes  and  temples. 
Ahead  was  a  stupendous  truncated  pyramid 
of  the  same  clay  bricks,  —  a  terraced  artifi 
cial  hill,  five  hundred  feet  long  and  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  high,  —  and  off  in  the  southerly 
haze  stood  out  the  shadowy  vastness  of  the 
far  greater  Pyramid  of  Moche.  No  wonder 
a  deep  light  came  into  his  eyes  as  they  swept 
that  wondrous  view,  —  the  gray  eyes  that  in 
boyhood  had  always  dreamed  of  exploring 
and  of  antiquity,  and  that  now  found  them 
selves  explorers  sure  enough,  in  the  Gran 
Chimu!  That  prehistoric  "city"  whose 
origin  is  lost  in  the  dawn  of  time;  that  ruin 

[70] 


whose  mighty  walls  and  bewildering  edifices  An 
cover  more  area  than  the  city  of  London;    Oppres- 
that  greatest  town  that  aborigines  ever  built  sive  Law 
in  the  New  World ! 

Nor  had  it  grown  common  to  him  with 
familiarity.  The  months  of  measurements, 
of  photographing,  of  excavating,  of  study, 
had  but  enhanced  the  fascination  of  the  for 
gotten  city.  Every  day  and  every  hour  there 
was  some  new  wonder,  some  new  beauty. 
What  architects  were  those  stolid  Indians  of 
Peru  when  Europe  was  in  the  Dark  Ages ! 
As  for  relics  of  antiquity,  the  innumerable 
and  precious  curios  that  their  peons  were  con 
stantly  turning  up,  —  how  poverty-stricken 
all  the  years  of  exploration  in  North  Ameri 
can  ruins  looked,  beside  these  dazzling  finds ! 
He  could  remember  the  boy  days  when  the 
acquisition  of  a  poor  little  flint  arrow-head 
had  kept  him  sleepless  all  night  with  the  op 
pression  of  riches,  —  and  here  already  they 
had  gathered  such  collections  of  ancient 
Peruvian  relics  as  the  British  Museum  itself 
never  held ! 

Now  he  was  threading  his  way  through  a 
vast  and  confused  huddle  of  mounds,  each  of 


The  which  had  been,  in  its  immemorial  day,  a 

Gold  Fish  great  building.    All  about  were  modern  holes, 

of  Gran    tunnels,  banks  of  upthrown  earth ;  and  here 

Chimu       and  there  volleys  of  dust  kept  puffing  up  from 

trenches  and  pits.     It  was  a  favorite  part  of 

the  ruins  with  the  huaqueros  ;  for  somehow  a 

belief  had  grown  current  that  in  this  vicinity 

was  the  famous  "Big  Fish." 

"God  give  Your  Grace  good-day,"  spoke 
out  a  courtly  old  Spaniard  as  the  Bullfighter 
dropped  lightly  down  a  fourteen-foot  wall,  in 
stead  of  going  around  by  the  trail  which  led 
to  the  bottom  of  the  excavation.  "  How  easy 
of  foot  are  you  Norte- Americanos !  And 
comes  Your  Grace  to  help  us  uncover  the 
Fez  Grande  ?  "  The  speaker's  hair  and  beard 
were  white,  and  in  his  swart  cheeks  the  darker 
wrinkles  ran  deep  and  innumerable;  but  his 
voice  was  musical  with  the  tone  of  one  who 
has  learned,  and  his  step  was  springy. 

"Ah,  Don  Beltran  !  "  said  the  American, 
warmly  grasping  the  proffered  hand.  "  Few 
of  us  are  so  easy  of  foot  at  seventy-five.  A 
jaguar  might  envy  you.  No,  I  don't  believe 
the  Fez  Grande  has  bitten  me,  yet  —  though 
if  you  come  across  him,  just  let  me  scrape  up 


a  scale  or  two,  eh?     I'm  a  pretty  good  hand   AH 
with  the  shovel,  myself."  Oppres- 

"Well  do  I  believe  it.  Aye,  so  are  the  stiff  Law 
Yanquis  not  afraid  to  work,  for  proud  though 
they  be.  But  in  my  unhappy  land  we  have 
only  'gentlemen  '  —  'gentlemen,'"  he  repeat 
ed  bitterly,  "ashamed  to  be  men.  There  is 
nothing  'gentle '  except  to  be  lazy  —  or,  if  one 
have  no  longer  mine  nor  hacienda  to  feed  him, 
then  to  hold  office  and  rob  his  country ! " 

"  Pobre  de  Peru !  If  there  were  more  to 
think  like  you,  Don  Beltran ! " 

"  But  what  is  one  poor  old  man  ?  I  work, 
yes !  And  my  son,  my  little  Gonzalo,  he  is 
noflojo.  Do  you  not  find  him  a  very  worker? 
So  I  have  taught  him  from  my  knee,  and  it  is 
in  the  bone.  I  have  said-him:  'hijito,  here 
they  are  blind.  They  make  it  disgrace  to 
harden  the  hand.  But  they  do  not  see  the 
world.  We  are  behind,  for  elsewhere  they 
have  learned  it  —  the  honor  of  to  do.  Even 
in  Peru  we  were  not  always  thus  —  did  not 
Don  Francisco,  the  Conqueror,  himself  work 
even  as  the  common  soldier?  Remember 
this,  my  Gonzalito,  what  a  man  is  is  what  he 
does,  Thou,  whose  ancestor  was  the  Con- 


The  queror  of  New  Granada,  hast  blood  and  name 

Gold  Fish  as  well  as  any;  but  upon  that  thou  must  build 
of  Gran    for  thyself.     Do  /  Do .'   Fear  not  that  work 
Chimu        shall  bring  thee  down  —  it  is  the  Man  who 
exalts  his  work.'  " 

"  Bravely  said,  Don  Beltran,  and  worthy  of 
your  blood.  And  you  may  be  proud  of  such 
a  son  as  Gonzalo  —  I  love  the  boy,  too.  But 
come,  what  are  you  finding  since  I  was  here  ?  " 
"Pues,  it  is  little!"  And  the  old  man 
gave  a  shrug.  "  Some  well-wrought  huacos 
and  a  few  admirable  cloths;  but  of  gold,  or 
silver,  nothing." 

"Yes,  here  is!"  croaked  a  hoarse  voice 
near  by,  and  a  tattered  huaquero  scrambled 
out  of  his  pit,  holding  up  a  long,  thin  plate 
of  metal,  reddish,  shaped  to  the  rude  sem 
blance  of  a  fish. 

"  So !  The  Fez  Chiqui-ti-ti-i-to  !  "  laughed 
the  Bullfighter,  wetting  a  spot  on  the  plate 
and  rubbing  it  hard  on  his  leg.  Just  there 
the  red  hue  departed,  and  a  rich,  waxy  yellow 
took  its  place.  "And  it's  very  good  gold,  too," 
he  added,  surveying  it  critically  and  weighing 
it  upon  his  fingers.  "  Curious  how  the  alloy 
varies!  I've  dug  up  gold  in  Pachacamac 


that  was  half  copper  —  and  then  the  very  An 
next  ornament  was  as  pure  as  our  eighteen-    Oppres- 
karat   jewelry.      It   shows   how   little   of   a  sive  Law 
science  smelting  was  with  the  old  Peruvians, 
after  all —  their  alloys  all  went  by  guesswork. 
Well,  I  hope  the  gold  fish  had  a  big  shoal  of 
small-fry,  and  that  you'll  catch  them  all.    But 
as  for  me,  I'd  rather  have  yonder  cloth  than 
a  whole  string  of  your  gold  fish." 

"Carry  ! "  cried  the  old  man,  picking  up 
and  handing  him  a  fabric  a  yard  square,  as 
fine  as  a  spider's  web,  so  beautiful  in  design 
that  no  one  who  had  not  seen  it  come  up  from 
twenty  feet  under  ground  could  have  believed 
that  it  had  lain  buried  so  many  centuries. 
"No,"  he  added,  "there  is  not  whereof  to 
thank.  But  come,  tell  me.  I  have  known 
the  story  of  the  Fez  Chico  -since  I  was  born, 
and  so  did  my  fathers.  But  I  never  besought 
the  records.  You,  who  are  e-scholar,  you  shall 
know  to  the  point.  It  is  historical,  no  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes — and  past  all  doubt.  The  records 
are  exact  —  you  see  everything  was  done  with 
a  system,  then.  I  only  wish  we  Saxons  had 
as  faithful  and  full  chronicles  of  our  early 
doings  in  America.  Well,  it  is  an  historical 


The  fact  that  in  the  year  1575  a  Spanish  peddler 

Gold  Fish  from  Lima,  named  Garci-Gutierrezde  Toledo 
of  Gran  began  tramping  up  the  coast  to  Truxillo  with 
Chimu  his  pack.  He  was  what  you  call  simpatico, 
making  many  friends  —  and  warmest  of  them 
all,  the  old  Indian  in  whose  house  he  lodged 
during  these  visits.  You  know  the  cacique  of 
an  Indian  village  is  in  honor  bound  to  enter 
tain  strangers;  and  the  peddler's  host  was 
Antonio  Chayhuac,  the  last  cacique  of  Man- 
siche.  Between  the  two  sprung  up  a  friend 
ship  of  unusual  strength.  The  peddler  often 
lamented  his  poverty;  and  one  dark  night  in 
1576  the  cacique  said:  'Then  I  am  the  one 
who  will  help  you. '  Leading  the  way  to  yon 
der  huaca,  he  opened  the  hidden  mouth  of  an 
underground  passage.  At  the  bottom  was  the 
Fez  Chico  ;  *  and  it  made  Garci-Gutierrez  the 
richest  man  in  Peru.  Of  all  treasure  found, 
one-fifth  had  to  go,  you  know,  to  the  king  of 
Spain;  and  in  this  case  the  'Royal  Fifth '  was 
^58,527  in  weighed  gold  —  so  the  whole  find 
was  nearly  $300,000.  That  was  a  fortune 
for  those  days,  since  gold  was  worth  several 
times  as  much  as  it  is  now.  The  lucky 

l  "  The  Little  Fish." 


peddler  made  a  present  to  Don  Francisco  de   An 
Toledo,  the  fifth  viceroy  of  Peru,  of  $20,000    Oppres- 
worth  of  golden  vessels  and  trinkets."  sive  Law 

"And  the  Fez  Grande?" 

"Ah,  the  Big  Fish  is  only  guesswork, 
though  there's  no  possible  doubt  it  rests  on 
this  truth  —  that  there  are  still  great  treasures 
here.  The  legend  is  that  the  messengers  who 
were  carrying  to  Cajamarca  the  golden  ran 
som  with  which  their  captive  war-chief,  Ata- 
hualpa,  had  promised  to  fill  his  room,  turned 
back  when  they  heard  of  his  death  and  buried 
the  treasure  here  in  the  Gran  Chimu.  That 
story  has  been  believed  for  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years  —  and  there  is  nothing  im 
possible  in  it.  Garci-Gutierrez,  by  the 
way,  squandered  his  Little  Fish  superbly, 
and  forgot  his  old  friends.  In  a  few  years 
he  was  poor  as  ever.  Then  he  came  back  to 
Truxillo  and  begged  the  cacique  to  disclose 
the  hiding-place  of  the  Big  Fish;  but  the 
Indian  laughed.  I  only  hope  you  find  it ! " 

"  Ah, "  sighed  Don  Beltran.    "  But  this  evil 

law  they  talk  to  pass  —  this  law  meant  to  rob 

our  few  scholars  of  their  collections  —  if  one 

were  to  find  even  the  Fez  Grande,  it  would 

C/7] 


The  rob  him  even  of  that.     There  is  no  remedy; 

Gold  Fish  either  to  find  it  before  the  law  shall  pass,  or 

of  Gran    not  at  all.     And  see  how  the  news  of  it  has 

Chimu       set  the  poor  afoot  ! "  he  added,  pointing  to 

distant  groups  of  men,  trudging  with  spade 

on  shoulder,  or  already  flinging  out  the  dust 

from  their  prospect-holes.     "All  Peru  will 

be  digging  by  to-morrow.     All,  it  is  to  say, 

except  the  ge nflemen." 

"  It  is  worth  more  that  you  find  it  on  your 
own  land,  Don  Beltran,"  smiled  the  Bullfighter 
as  he  turned  toward  a  doorway  in  the  massive 
walls.  The  voice  was  jesting;  but  there  was 
a  note  in  it  which  none  should  better  inter 
pret  than  this  brave  old  cavalier,  head  of  a 
noble  but  decayed  house. 


CHAPTER  II 
Some   of   the  Anglers 

THE  Maestro  and  the  two  boys  stood  on  Some 
top  of  the  tallest  wall  in  the   Gran  of  the 
Chimu.    Upon  this  vast  adobe  circumvalla-  Anglers 
tion,  over  thirty   feet   high  and    four  yards 
thick    at    the    base,    they    were  lingering  a 
moment  before  they  should  scramble  down 
a   gap    and    turn   homeward.     Their  day's 
work  was  done.     The  red  ball  of  the  sun 
was    just    resting   on  the   blue   Pacific,  the 
boom  of  whose  surf  stole  up  on  the  faint 


The  breeze.     The  great,  sharp,  barren  peaks  of 

Gold  Fish  Salaverry  burned  high  above  the  advance- 
of  Gran  guard  of  the  fog  ;  and  upon  the  ruins  of 
Chimu  the  Gran  Chimu  lay  such  wizard  shadows 
that  one  could  almost  find  it  once  more 
a  peopled  city,  and  begin  to  look  for  the 
brown  Yuncas  to  come  gliding  back  out  of 
the  forgotten  centuries  and  fill  their  broken 
streets  again  with  labor  and  with  life.  The 
great  wall  boxed  a  court  fifteen  hundred  feet 
square,  with  two  gateways.  Within,  and 
parallel  to  it,  was  a  lesser  wall,  leaving  be 
tween  them  a  narrow  alley  all  around  the 
court.  Inside  this,  again,  stood  the  myriad 
naked  walls  of  a  whole  town  of  pitch-roof 
adobe  houses,  in  "blocks  "  separated  by  nar 
row  passages.  It  was  one  of  the  "  wards  "  of 
the  ancient  city;  as  all  Chirmi  had  a  tre 
mendous  circumvallation  against  hostile  out 
siders,  so  each  ward  had  a  similar  defense 
against  its  jealous  and  sometimes  hostile 
neighbor  wards.  There  are  many  very  beau 
tiful  things  about  the  organization  of  primi 
tive  peoples,  —  many  virtues  which  do  not 
seem  to  thrive  so  well  in  civilization.  But 
there  are  also,  as  a  rule,  many  unlovely  fea- 
[*>] 


tures;  and  it  does  not  do  to  believe  all  —  nor  Some 
half  —  the  romantic  moonshine  we  have  been  of  the 
taught  about  ancient  Peru  and  "the  enlight-  Anglers 
ened  rule  of  the  Incas."     We  are  coming  to 
understand  these  things,  now  that  scientists 
and  historians  have  learned  that  it  is  wise  to 
see  and  know  something  of  the  country  they 
are  going  to  write  about,  —  and  something 
of  other  countries,  too. 

"£a/  But  this  is  a  laberinto!  "  cried  the 
flippant  Franco,  breaking  the  almost  solemn 
hush.  Evidently  his  thoughts  had  not  been 
with  the  grandeur  and  awe  of  the  scene. 
"To-morrow,  pues,  I  shall  dig  even  yonder; 
for  this  barrio  is  the  best  in  all  the  Gran 
Chimu,  and  why  should  not  the  treasure  be 
in  that  huaca?  "  In  an  open  space  amid  the 
thatchless  houses  stood  a  dim  adobe  pyra 
mid,  the  sacrifice-mound  of  the  ward. 

No  one  answered,  and  he  rattled  on.  "  But 
it  can  be  that  I  will  wait  a  so-little.  Don 
Guzman,  the  old  Stingy,  thinks  to  dig,  and 
maybe  he  will  know  where !  You  know  that 
Indian,  Bartolo,  —  he  that  is  said  to  be  a  de 
scendant  of  the  caciques  ?  Well,  I  saw  them 
this  morning  in  the  courtyard,  and  Don  Guz- 


The  man  was  well  pouring  to  him  the  red  wine. 

Gold  Fish  He !  he ! "     Franco  chuckled. 

of  Gran        "  Shameless !     Is  it  well  to  make  drunk  the 

Chimu  poor  old  innocent,  hoping  that  he  may  spill 
his  knowledge?  It  is  like  Don  Guzman  — 
but  thou!  What  would  say  my  father?" 
Gonzalo  had  roused  from  his  dreaming,  and 
spoke  sharply,  rather  with  a  tone  of  authority. 
"  What  imports-me  ?  "  Franco  retorted,  with 
a  shrug.  "  If  the  Stingy  can  get  him  a  so- 
much  drunk,  it  may  be  he  will  show  where  is 
the  Fez  Grande,  —  for  sure  that  he  can.  All 
know  that  since  the  Spaniards  came  the  secret 
is  only  with  the  caciques,  who  hand  it  down  to 
their  sons.  And  if  Don  Guzman  finds  it,  call 
me  toad  if  /  get  not  a  mouthful !  For  I  shall 
watch  him  as  the  condor  does  a  sick  mule." 
"  Vamos,  vultureling  and  eaglet,"  broke  in 
the  Maestro.  "We  have  enough  measured 
now  for  a  while,  and  to-morrow  you  can  bait 
your  hooks  for  the  Big  Fish.  Ay  !  But  this 
ward  is  a  labyrinth !  I  should  like  to  know 
how  many  thousand  walls  and  angles  I  have 
measured  in  it  in  the  last  ten  days." 

"  But  where  shall  we  fish  for  him,  Se'or 
Maestro?" 


"  H'm !    Anywhere  that  you  can  be  alone. "  Some 
This  was  said  as  if  to  himself;  and  then,  in  of  the 
his  usual  tone  of  banter  with  the  boys,  he  Anglers 
added :  "  He  is  as  like  to  be  in  the  shallows 
as  in  the  deeps.     Only,  much  eye  that  at  the 
first  bite  ye  call  friends,  and  not  strangers, 
to  help  pull  him  out !  " 

By  now  they  were  in  the  uncertain  gravelly 
road  which  winds  through  the  ruins  from  the 
upper  coast  to  Truxillo.  Great  breached 
walls  crept  up  out  of  the  dusk,  and  glowered 
down  on  them,  and  fell  behind.  The  gray 
road  upon  the  gray  plain  could  no  longer  be 
made  out,  —  only  by  their  feet  they  knew 
when  they  had  overstepped  its  edge.  The 
last  glow  was  gone  from  sky  and  peaks ;  even 
the  ghostly  whiteness  of  the  city  of  Truxillo 
had  disappeared.  Up  through  the  gloom 
came  only  the  low,  far  moan  of  the  sea,  as  if 
to  emphasize  the  silence  of  the  ruins. 

Then  this  murmur  seemed  to  grow  and 
swell;  and  presently  it  became  a  sharp  clatter 
on  the  pebbles,  with  sparks  flying  from  iron- 
shod  heels,  and  next  a  towering  form  thun 
dered  out  of  the  darkness  and  reined  up  in 
their  very  faces. 


The  "Alto!"  roared  a  thick  voice.    "Who  are 

Gold  Fish  ye,  sneaking  in  the  highway  by  night?    Rats, 

of  Gran    go  back,  or  I  trample  ye !  " 

Chimu  "Alto,  thyself!"  rang  the  Maestro 's  clear 

voice.  "Thou  art  drunk.  A  handsome 
police,  truly,  whose  sotted  zambos  would 
ride  down  their  betters !  " 

"Who'sh  drunk,  rebel?"  sputtered  the 
negro  cavalryman,  in  new  rage.  "I'll  show 
you  to  resist  the  guardia  !  "  And  he  drew 
his  saber,  rising  in  his  stirrups  as  he  spurred 
the  horse. 

"  Enough,  bruto!  Go  and  get  thee  sober. 
Meantime  I  will  speak  —  so !  Wouldst 
thou?"  The  hickory  cane  revolved  in  a 
curious  fashion,  and  a  saber  was  heard  rat 
tling  upon  the  rocks  off  to  the  right.  "  Then 
thou  hadst  best  try  foils  with  some  one  who 
was  not  pupil  to  Ducrot.  As  I  went  to  say, 
I  will  speak  with  my  friend  the  Senor  In- 
tendente,1  Don  Pedro  de  Villazur,  and  dis 
cover  why  drunken  zambos  are  sent  out  to 
abuse  the  peace  they  are  paid  to  guard." 

The  cavalryman  was  none  too  drunk  to 
recognize  the  authority  of  that  quiet  tone, 
i  Chief  of  Police. 


and  that  the  voice  was  not  of  the  rabble.    Some 
Only  the  Great  used  such  Spanish  as  that;   of  the 
and  after  stumbling  and  groping  about  for  Anglers 
his   sword,    he   rode    away,    muttering,  but 
cowed. 

"Ay  /  But  I  thought  it  was  your  hour!  " 
said  Gonzalo,  huskily,  dropping  a  cobblestone 
he  had  snatched  up.  "How  knows  Your 
Grace  the  sword  so  well  ?  For  you  disarmed 
him  even  as  one  would  a  child." 

"  So !  I  learned  it  in  Paris,  when  I  was  a 
student  and  young.  Even  in  science,  it  is 
useful  to  have  hands;  so  I  have  not  forgotten. 
Ach!  So  soon?" 

It  was  Franco  stumbling  back  into  the 
road.  "  I  was  to  go  for  succor, "  he  explained 
glibly,  "seeing  you  so  besieged  by  the 
guardia." 

"  Well  thought !"  replied  the  Maestro,  drily. 
"Thou  for  presence  of  mind!  Now  this 
young  stupid  here,"  —  and  he  laid  his  hand 
on  Gonzalo 's  head  in  the  darkness,  —  "this 
four-times  thoughtless  had  tumbled  the  zambo 
with  a  rock,  even  though  late,  if  I  had  not 
saved  him  the  need.  So  there  could  have 
been  two  to  want  succor  by  the  time  thou 


The  got'st  back  from  Truxillo,  which  is  only  a 

Gold  Fish  league  from  here ! " 

of  Gran        "  Yes,  but  I  would  have  come  in  a  breath, 

Chimu  with  the  Se'or  Intendente  himself !  "  cried 
Franco,  unabashed.  But  in  himself  he  was 
wondering:  "What  wizard  is  this  that  sees 
in  the  night,  and  blows  cavalry  away  with  his 
breath,  and  reads  the  thought?" 

After  that  they  walked  on  in  silence,  their 
heels  clacking  on  the  pebbles  in  the  hollows, 
or  stirring  a  faint  whisper  as  they  shuffled  up 
the  heavy  sand-dunes.  Only  when  they  came 
between  tall  hedges  of  osage-orange,  and  the 
lights  of  Cortiju  were  just  ahead,  the  Maestro 
stopped  abruptly,  with  a  hand  on  Gonzalo's 
arm,  saying :  "  Oyes,  Franco.  Put  the  things 
in  my  room,  and  then  —  feet  in  the  dusty !  " 
"Tell  me,  then,"  he  continued  in  a  lower 
tone,  as  Franco  slouched  away  in  the  gloom. 
"What  is  this  I  hear  of  thy  father's  hacienda? 
They  have  told  me  truth?  That  it  is  com 
promised  because  he  guaranteed  the  debt  of 
a  friend,  who  failed  to  pay,  and  now  they 
are  to  take  it?" 

Gonzalo   hesitated  a  moment.     "Surely, 
my  father  will  not  blame  me,"  he  said  at 


last,  "  for  he  has  told  me  Your  Grace  is  worthy  Some 
all  trust.     Yes,  it  is  truth !     They  want  to  of  the 
take  our  dear  Moche,  —  and  then  there  is  Anglers 
nothing  left  but  this  poor  house  in  Cortiju. 
Ay  de  mi .'    And  so  hard  as  he  has  worked, 
this  my  father — he,  Don  Beltran  de  Quesada, 
laboring  even  as  a  peon  —  to  lift  us  back  out 
of  the  wreck  in  which  the  Chileans  left  us ! " 
The  lad's  voice  was  now  unsteady. 

"Pity!  But  in  spite  of  the  jealousy  that 
he  is  industrious,  thy  father  has  much  in 
fluence.  He  is  beloved  of  all  the  common 
people ;  and  of  a  certainty  those  of  his  own 
rank  dare  not  do  anything  illegal  against 
him,  even  in  this  Peru." 

"No,  Excellency,  they  dare  not.  But  I 
think  that  legally,  too,  they  can  take  the  haci 
enda,  since  he  formally  compromised  it  for 
his  friend,  who  is  now  a  general  in  the  army, 
but  a  without-shame.  He  laughs  and  says : 
'  Vaya  !  The  gentleman  who  works  — pues, 
let  him  work !  Why  should  I  waste  money, 
paying  it  to  one  who  forgets  his  birth  ? ' 
Thrice  has  my  father  gone  to  him,  in  vain. 
Only  with  the  silver  in  hand  to  satisfy  the 
Jews  could  the  Moche  be  saved,  —  and  it  is 
O7] 


The  twenty  thousand  soles  he  had  to  pay  for  that 

Gold  Fish  ingrate." 

of  Gran        "  Ach!     That  comes  to  twelve   thousand 

Chimu  dollars  in  gold.  It  is  ill  indeed!  Pues, 
thou  must  know  that  for  much  as  I  spend 
money,  it  is  not  mine,  but  in  trust  for  the 
expedition.  Of  my  own,  I  have  none.  But 
I  have  strings  in  this  thy  Peru;  and  perhaps 
some  of  my  friends  will  aid  thy  father.  A 
good  name  is  good,  even  in  Judea  —  though 
it  is  much,  this  twenty  thousand  soles.  And 
in  passing,  my  young  fox,"  he  went  on  with 
out  change  of  tone,  "  let  us  suppose  that  thou 
betake  thy  tiresome  ears  whither  I  ordered 
them.  For  plane-tables  and  tripods  are  not 
made  to  go  eavesdropping  in  the  hedges." 

There  had  been  no  sound  that  Gonzalo's 
sharp  young  ears  could  detect;  nor  was  there 
now,  except  the  snapping  of  one  twig. 
Gonzalo  gave  a  little  start,  half  wonder  and 
half  awe. 

"It  is  nothing,"  said  the  Maestro,  in  a 
tone  one  might  know,  even  in  the  darkness, 
had  a  smile  in  it.  "  A  man  does  not  live  ten 
years  with  the  North  American  Indians  with 
out  learning  what  his  eyes  and  ears  were  made 


for.     Si,  and  his  nose,   too.     Franco  is  a  Some 
clever  stalker;  but  my  tobacco-pipe  in  the  of  the 
satchel  is  a  trifle  too  old  for  him  to  expect  Anglers 
to  bring  it  within  so  few  yards  of  my  nose 
undetected.     Well,  let  us  go  in,  for  I  have 
eaten  nothing  since  my  coffee  and  biscuit  at 
sunrise." 

It  was  a  queer  old  room,  that  in  which  the 
Maestro  lighted  a  candle  in  its  massive  silver 
stick,  and  then  turned  to  wash  in  a  silver 
basin  two  feet  in  diameter,  whose  pitcher 
was  to  match.  Gonzalo  set  the  level-box 
carefully  in  a  corner,  stowed  away  the  tri 
pod,  plane-table,  and  satchel,  —  which  they 
had  found  lying  upon  the  threshold,  —  and 
now  stood  waiting  respectfully,  his  faded 
Panama  hat  in  his  hands. 

The  ceiling  was  high  and  strong,  with 
carved  rafters,  though  earthquakes  had  racked 
it  till  a  star  peered  through  here  and  there; 
and  the  mildew  of  a  Peruvian  "winter" 
stained  it  and  the  walls.  The  windows 
were  high,  narrow,  deep  in  the  yard-thick 
adobe  masonry,  and  had,  besides  their  iron 
bars,  modern  shutters  almost  as  heavy  as  the 
venerable  door.  The  furniture  was  a  pon- 


The  derous  bed,  a  table,  lounge,  washstand,  and 

Gold  Fish  three  chairs.  It  was  all  very  shabby.  Its 
of  Gran  brocades  were  dingy  and  threadbare,  the 
Chimu  wood  dim  with  scratches  till  one  might  never 
have  guessed  that  it  was  carved  from  the  solid 
mahogany  logs  below  Chachapoyas.  The 
tiled  floor  was  uneven,  and  in  places  broken. 
Even  the  great  candlestick,  the  massive  ink 
stand,  the  overgrown  wash  set,  were  so  dented 
and  discolored  they  might  well  have  been 
mistaken  for  pewter,  except  when  —  as  now 
that  the  Maestro  bumped  the  bowl  with  the 
pitcher  —  they  rang  true  as  a  good  dollar 
upon  an  inquisitive  counter. 

That  was  where  Don  Beltran  was  "  differ 
ent."  The  neighbor  cavaliers,  who  still 
dressed  as  for  Court,  and  kept  all  their  airs 
and  their  soft  hands,  —  well  their  silver  fur 
niture  was  in  Jacobi's  dazzling  windows,  in 
Lima,  along  with  countless  other  tokens  of 
the  time  when  iron  was  the  only  metal  too  ex 
pensive  to  be  much  used  in  Peru.  "They 
ihave  been  eating  their  silverware  these  ten 
^s/ years,"  as  Jacobi  concisely  put  it;  and  there 
was  now  precious  little  left  to  eat  —  of  silver 
or  of  plain  bread  —  in  these  proud  houses. 


But   a   "gentleman"    could    not  work,    of  Some 
course,  even  though  he  starve.  of  the 

Now,  Don  Beltran  preferred  to  work.  So  Anglers 
the  old  heirlooms  were  still  in  the  old,  faded 
house,  —  though  they  had  grown  dull  since 
the  death  of  their  mistress.  Out  in  the  dingy 
kitchen  was  even  one  of  the  silver  cauldrons; 
it  was  still  huge  and  thick,  but  so  battered 
and  begrimed  that  I  fear  poor  Dona  Ine"z 
would  never  have  recognized  it,  could  she 
have  come  back  to  see  how  cholo  servants 
can  soon  undo  even  so  famous  a  house 
keeper. 

For  Don  Beltran  had  fallen  upon  poverty, 
though  he  worked,  as  deep  as  that  of  his  lazy 
neighbors.  He  had  done  very  bravely  in 
building  up  from  the  wreck  left  by  the 
Chilean  war,  till,  in  an  evil  hour,  he  indorsed 
for  a  pleading  neighbor.  It  was  clear  as 
highway  robbery.  Don  Ce"sar  had  never  in 
tended  to  meet  his  note.  Don  Beltran  had 
had  to  pay  it,  going  to  the  bank  with  twenty 
porters,  each  carrying  an  ore-sack  heavy 
with  a  thousand  silver  dollars,  which  had 
come  up  by  steamer  from  Lima.  The  con 
venience  of  gold  or  greenbacks  does  not  exist 


The  in   Peru.     Now  he   was   almost   penniless; 

Gold  Fish  while  Don  Ce"sar,  a  new-fledged  general  in 
of  Gran  the  army,  and  with  both  greedy  hands  in  the 
Chimu  public  coffers,  mocked  at  the  claim. 

It  was  true  the  silver  olla,  and  the  bowls, 
pitchers,  picture-frames,  stirrups  of  the  same 
pretty  metal,  would  have  sold  for  enough  to 
keep  the  family  and  run  the  hacienda  a  year, 
—  not  more,  for  such  trinkets  bring  nowadays 
in  Peru  less  than  their  weight  in  minted  dol 
lars.  But  as  Don  Beltran  said:  " Pues,  we 
eat  them  for  a  year,  eh  ?  Good.  And  then  ? 
Then  there  is  no  more  to  eat,  and  my  house 
is  naked  —  without  the  trinkets  that  are  from 
my  fathers,  and  that  my  wife  loved.  Nay ! 
If  we  are  to  starve,  let  it  be  with  our  heir 
looms  beside  us  and  not  in  the  pawn-shops. " 
For  he,  too,  was  a  little  proud  in  his  own 
way,  you  see,  this  old  Don  Beltran.  As  for 
the  mortgaged  plantation  of  Moche,  the  sil 
verware  would  not  help  that.  There  must 
be  a  miracle,  nothing  less,  to  raise  twenty 
thousand  soles  in  hard  coin.  Or  yes  —  if 
he  could  find  the  Fez  Grande!  That,  also, 
might  seem  a  miracle  anywhere  else;  but  in 
Peru,  the  land  of  buried  treasures,  no  man 


that  ever  touched  hand  to  spade  in  one  of   Some 
the  great  ruins  but  believed  he,  his  very  self,    of  the 
might  most  likely  find  the  treasure.     Only —  Anglers 
that  accursed   law!     When  mummy-mining 
should  be  stopped,  what  remained  —  unless 
to  hold  office  ?     But  where  salaries  are  beg 
garly  small,  and  only  the  chances  for  theft 
large,  there  is  not  much  temptation  for  an 
honest  man  to  enter  public  life. 

The  modest  supper  of  bread,  brown  beans, 
jerked  mutton,  and  coffee,  served  by  a  bare 
foot  chola,  was  finished,  and  the  Bullfighter 
had  gone  to  develop  his  negatives  in  the 
stable.  The  Maestro  had  lighted  his  pipe, 
and  Don  Beltran  a  husk  cigarro,  and  they 
were  talking  earnestly,  while  Gonzalo  sat 
bolt  upright  in  his  chair,  drinking  in  every 
word.  It  was  ten  o'clock  when  the  old  man 
rose  with  a  sigh. 

"  You  have  to  forgive,"  he  said.  "  I  meant 
not  to  give  you  care.  Most  kind  is  Your 
Grace  —  more  than  a  brother.  But  I  hope 
little  from  your  friends.  Here,  only  the 
foolish  give  security  for  their  fellows.  No, 
we  have  to  find  the  Fish,  or  Moche  is 
lost" 


The  At  precisely  the  same  moment,  and  not  a 

Gold  Fish  hundred  yards  away,  there  was  going  on  a 

of  Gran    curiously  different  conversation,  but  with  the 

Chimu       same  glittering  text.     From  a  corner  in  the 

osage-orange  hedge  a  footpath  led  "across- 

lots  "  to  the  northwest.     Just  here  and  now 

was  a  noise  of  floundering  and  grunts,  as  if 

two  pigs  might  be  rooting  under  the  hedge. 

Finally  a  short,  fat  figure  struggled  through 

on  the  farther  side  of  the  gap,  hauling  an 

unsteady  mass,  which  also  had  some  look  of 

being  human. 

"Barbarian!"  panted  the  fat  man  in  an 
angry  whisper.  "  One  had  need  be  a  mule, 
to  carry  thee !  With  what  motive  art  drunk 
so  wastefully  much?  I  might  have  spared  a 
media's  worth  of  wine,  as  well  as  not.  For 
heaven's  sake,  move ! " 

To  this  the  only  response  was  a  thick :  "  No 
Atahualpa." 

"  Tst!  Hush  the  mouth,  with  thy  'father 
Atahualpa ! '  He's  well  dead,  this  three  hun 
dred  and  sixty  years.  Anda !  Shake  the 
feet ! "  and  he  gave  his  staggering  charge  an 
ungentle  shove.  "A  whole  pint  of  wine 
more  than  was  needed !  Ay  de  mi  !  Thou' It 
\.34\ 


drive  me  to  the  Asylum  of  Indigents,  wretch !   Some 
Walking,  now,  stupid !  "  of  the 

But  the  lurching  Indian  either  did  not  Anglers 
hear,  or  could  not  obey,  the  order.  The 
mechanical  motion  of  his  legs  grew  more  and 
more  uncertain.  He  shuffled,  and  swayed, 
and  backed,  and  lopped  forward,  and  tangled 
his  toes  with  his  heels,  in  a  fashion  that 
some  folk  might  find  very  funny  —  but  that 
braver  men  would  reckon  more  sad  than 
laughable.  To  his  conductor,  indeed,  it 
seemed  lamentable  enough;  but  perhaps  not 
from  excess  of  manhood.  He  groaned  and 
berated  at  each  new  lurch;  and  when,  in  a 
particularly  boneless  slump,  the  big  frame 
fairly  lost  all  notion  of  its  legs,  swung  over 
upon  him  and  bore  him  headlong  to  the 
earth,  his  guarded  voice  forgot  itself  in  a 
snort  of  rage. 

"Child  of  sea-lions!  Get  thee  from  off 
me,  or  I  break  thee  that  leaden  skull ! " 

But  his  threat  was  wasted.  The  Indian, 
who  was  head  and  shoulders  the  taller,  had 
fallen  literally  "all  over  him."  The  fat  man 
was  sprawled  upon  his  back,  with  meddle 
some  clods  searching  his  ribs,  and  that  inert 


The  bulk  half  smothering  him.     In  vain  he  tried 

Gold  Fish  to  be  rid  of  it  —  Typhon  might  as  well  have 
of  Gran    thought  to  heave  Mt.  Etna  off  his  chest. 
Chimd  "  Oyes,    Bartolo,"  he   gasped   in   a  con 

ciliatory  whisper.  "Disembarrass  me,  and 
I  have  still  some  juice  of  the  grape  for 
thee." 

The  only  answer  was  a  deep,  husky  snore. 
Bartolo  had  promptly  improved  the  oppor 
tunity  to  fall  into  a  drunken  sleep.  For  a 
while  after  this  the  captive  heaved  and  tugged 
in  voiceless  rage,  and  of  a  sudden  began 
actually  to  blubber !  Had  he  not  been  thus 
occupied  in  relieving  his  tense  nerves,  he 
might  have  noticed  a  curious  sound,  as  of 
some  one  choking  to  death  behind  a  bush  a 
few  yards  away.  There  a  prone  figure  shook, 
and  writhed,  and  pulled  the  flaps  of  a  tat 
tered  jacket  about  its  head,  as  if  to  stifle 
these  gurglings. 

A  little  later,  Guzman  the  Miser  —  for  the 
fat  man  was  he  —  had  roused  his  sleeper  by 
dint  of  merciless  punchings  and  pinchings, 
and  escaped  from  under  him;  and,  sore  but 
eager,  was  again  dragging  him  along  the 
trail,  both  stumbling  in  the  darkness.  In  a 


moment  more,  a  much   smaller  form  than  Some 

either  of  theirs,  and  much  better  possessed  of  the 

of  its  feet,  crept  from  behind  its  bush  and  Anglers 
followed,  noiselessly  as  a  cat. 


CHAPTER  III 

Fishing   in   the   Dust 

The  "A  LL  Peru"  did,  indeed,  appear  to  have 

Gold  Fish  -^A-  fallen   to   digging    for   mummies,    as 
of  Gran      Don   Beltran   had    predicted  —  at  least,  so 
Chimu        much  of  it  as  could  conveniently  get  at  the 
Gran  Chimii. 

The  square  leagues  of  ruins  had  broken  out 
with  something  like  an  eruption  of  dust  gey 
sers.  Look  whichever  way  one  would,  little 
clouds  were  puffing  up  so  thickly  that  at  fifty 
feet  above  the  earth  they  united  in  a  great  can- 


opy  which  quite  hid  the  faint  sun,  and  turned   Fishing 
the  landscape  from  its  ashen  gray  to  a  curious   in  the 
smoky  yellow.      And  along  the  ground  the   Dust 
air  was  so  laden  with  impalpable  dust  that  it 
was  ill  breathing. 

As  for  the  "  fishers "  in  this  strange  sea 
of  sand,  they  were  a  curious  assortment. 
Here  was  Arana  —  the  contractor  and  master- 
mason  who  was  getting  rich  at  his  trade, 
five  years  ago,  until  he  had  caught  the 
mummy-fever  and  was  now  a  professional 
huaquero  —  with  the  dozen  half-breed  peons 
he  had  been  able  to  secure  by  glittering  prom 
ises.  He  was  working  vigorously  among  them 
—  for  Arana  was  at  once  too  much  of  a  con 
noisseur  to  let  escape  him  the  personal  thrill 
of  that  exciting  quest,  and  too  frugal  to  for 
get  that  if  he  found  something  himself  there 
would  be  no  question  of  division  or  extra 
pay. 

Over  yonder  a  mighty  cloud  went  up 
from  the  fast-deepening  pits  where  toiled 
seven  huaqueros  of  the  poorer  sort,  who  had 
banded  together  to  hold  a  certain  promising 
court. 

In  another  place  forty  Chinese  convicts 


The  were  digging  soberly — far  too  soberly  to 

Gold  Fish  please  the  cavalier  who  lolled  upon  a  mag- 

of  Gran    nificent  horse  on  the  bank  above,  and  urged 

Chimu       them  with  many  gratuitous  reflections  upon 

their  character  and  country;   the  while  he 

wrapped  closer  a  costly  poncho  of  the  silken 

vicuna  to  keep  the  dust  from  his  clothing. 

Here  and  there  were  solitary  spadesmen, 

many  of  whom  —  as  one  might  easily  see  by 

their  actions  —  had  never  dug  for  mummies 

before ;  poor  cholo  laborers,  out  of  work,  who 

had  come  to  think  it  better  to  cast  a  hook 

for  the  Big  Fish  of  Chimti  (or  any  chance 

small-fry,  for  that  matter)  than  to  go  seining 

along  the  beach  for  the  little  mackerel,  that 

usually,  in  dull  times,  fed  them  and  theirs. 

So  it  went,  all  across  that  great  area  — 
hardly  was  there  a  barrio  but  had  some  one 
gophering  somewhere  within  its  limits;  and 
in  certain  localities,  where  it  was  thought 
more  promising,  the  claims  fairly  elbowed 
one  another. 

Down  in  the  Hall  of  the  Arabesques,  Don 
Beltran's  old  back  was  see-sawing  with  an 
agility  to  have  shamed  almost  any  one  of  his 
stout  peons.  He  had  nine  of  them  —  all  the 


servants  and  plantation  hands  of  Moche  and  Fishing 
Cortiju;  Indians,  cholos,  zambos.  Even  in  the 
Chenta,  the  fat  cook,  had  come  along  and  Dust 
was  now  dusting  with  her  unrecognizable 
apron  some  particularly  fine  pottery  which 
a  laborer  handed  up  from  the  depths;  now 
stowing  some  metal  trinkets  in  a  coarser  large 
jar  which  she  covered  with  a  square  of 
mummy-cloth.  Gonzalo  was  there,  too,  dig 
ging  with  the  best,  but  a  little  oftener  pop 
ping  his  head  out  of  his  shaft  for  a  sniff  of 
such  choky  air  as  was  to  be  had.  And  amid 
all  this  stir  and  life  dwelt  a  silence  utterly 
oppressive.  The  dust-puffs  flew  up,  and  now 
and  then  a  spade  flashed  above  the  surface; 
but  in  that  strange  soil  there  was  no  sound 
of  digging.  Only  now  and  then  a  faint  voice 
seemed  to  exhale  from  the  underground,  or 
there  was  a  husky  cough. 

Over  on  the  other  side  of  the  ponderous 
walls  (uncovered  by  prior  excavations  so  that 
their  remarkable  clay  arabesques  were  fully 
revealed)  the  Bullfighter  walked  to  and  fro 
upon  an  adobe  parapet,  his  eyes  hovering 
from  point  to  point  in  the  area  directly 
below.  A  score  of  holes  were  there,  each 


The  belching  its  dust-cloud;  and  every  few  mo- 

Gold Fish  ments  he  leaped  down  from  his  wall,  and 
of  Gran  bent  over  the  mouth  of  one  of  them  and 
Chimu  ordered,  "give  me."  Then  a  grimy  hand 
would  come  up  from  below,  holding  a  pot 
tery  vase  or  a  metal  mace-head,  or  some  such 
thing,  which  he  would  examine  critically, 
mark  with  a  pencil,  and  stow  in  the  big 
pockets  of  his  horsehide  coat  or  in  the  red 
alforja*  over  his  shoulder.  It  was  not  as  easy 
work  as  it  looked  —  to  watch  the  hired  exca 
vators  of  the  expedition,  making  sure  that 
they  broke  nothing  and  stole  nothing;  to 
clamber  down  into  a  shaft,  every  now  and 
then,  and  in  that  stifling  dust  make  a  dia 
gram  of  the  position  of  some  mummy  with 
reference  to  its  surroundings,  or  the  con 
struction  of  a  peculiar  burial-chamber;  to 
scan  the  indications  at  the  bottom  of  some 
hole  and  decide  in  which  direction  the  hua- 
quero  had  better  "drift";  to  unmask  that 
beautiful  camera  on  the  wall  and  photograph 
some  object  just  handed  up  from  below,  or 
lower  the  instrument  and  follow  it  under 
ground,  focus  by  the  little  lantern  at  his  belt, 
1  A  sort  of  saddle-bags,  frequently  carried  as  a  satchel. 


and  make  a  "  flashlight "  of  an  unusual  find,    Fishing 
before  it  should  be  disturbed  at  all  in  the  bed  in  the 
where  it  had  slumbered  for  ages.     Yes,  it  was  Dust 
tremendously  hard  work ;  particularly  on  the 
tense  nerves.      He  had  almost  to  be  a  mind 
reader  to  be  sure  that  some  priceless  little 
relic  did  not  go  slipping  into  a  greasy  pocket, 
or  some  other  of  the  innumerable  details  go 
wrong.      But  the  Bullfighter  seemed  to  be 
enjoying  it;  and  as  he  strode  swiftly  about  or 
leaped  at  the  work,  his  face  glowed  through 
all  its  grime. 

"  Que  ?  "  he  jerked  out  abruptly,  as  a  dusty 
figure,  slouching  up  the  parapet,  touched  him 
upon  the  elbow.  "  Eh,  lu  ?  Well,  Franco, 
what  axe  for  the  stone?  I  thought  thee 
huaqueando  to-day." 

"Then,  Your  Grace,  I  — will  Your  Excel 
lency  honor  me  to  speak  a  word  in  the  ear? 
For  it  is  importanti-i-isimo  /  " 

"  Quickliest,  then,  for  I  am  worked.  What 
is  it?" 

"But  why  should  Your  Lordship  work?  I 
am  I  who  will  make  it  that  you  need  not  any 
more.  Let  the  peons  work  —  and  Don  Bel- 
tran,  who  is  with  affection  of  it  —  but  we  will 

Mr] 


The  be  rich  and  gentlemen,  hiring  commoners  to 

Gold  Fish  labor  for  us.    If  only  Your  Worship  will  lend 

of  Gran    me  the  goodness  of  fifty  soles  —  for  /  know 

Chimu       where  is  the  Fez  Grande  /  "    The  sharp  young 

face  seemed  grown  old  since  yesterday,  and 

the  ferret  eyes  burned  greenish.    Franco  was 

trembling,  too  —  a  very  serious  symptom  in 

so  self-possessed  a  young  person. 

"  Vaya  with  your  Big  Fish  —  /don't  want 
him.  And  do  you  think  me  a  camarron,1 
to  sleep  in  the  swift  water?  Do  I  look  as  one 
who  has  never  seen  people  that  'knew  just 
where  was  the  Fez  Grande '  ?" 

"No,  no,  Your  Worship!  I  am  not  of 
those  —  truly,  truly  —  I  swear  it !  It  is  that 
by  accident  I  —  I  —  in  verity  of  truth,  one 
who  knows  from  the  old  times,  a  son  of  the 
caciques,  showed  me,  in  gratitude  that  I  had 
once  befriended  him.  And  now  it  is  to  take 
out  the  treasure  before  Don  Guz  —  before 
any  one  shall  be-find  it,  since  so  many  dig 
to-day." 

"I'm  sorry  to  say,  Franco,"  replied  the 
Bullfighter,  slowly,  "  that  I  see  thou  art  lying 
to  me.  Why  canst  thou  not,  just  for  change, 

1  Shrimp. 


tell  the  truth  like  a  man?    Thou'rt  a  bright  Fishing 
boy,  a  mighty  clever  one,  and  I  should  look  in  the 
to  hear  considerable  things  of  thee,  one  of  Dust 
these  days,  —  if  thou  knewest  enough  to  be 
honest.     Come,  open  to  me." 

Franco  looked  down,  and  then  away,  and 
then  back  again.  His  knees  began  to  tap 
together  nervously.  "  I  will  tell  the  true,"  he 
whispered  abruptly,  "though  Your  Worship 
shall  blame  me.  Last  night,  having  an  errand, 
I  was  coming  back  through  the  ruins  very  late. 
Of  a  sudden,  hearing  secret  voices,  I  crept 
behind  a  wall  and  listened.  It  was  Don 
Guzman,  the  Stingy,  with  the  Indian  Bar- 
tolo  very  drunk.  Without  doubt  he  had 
made  him  so,  by  intention.  And  said  Don 
Guzman :  '  Where,  brute  ?  Where  is  it  hid, 
this  Fez  Grande?'  The  Indian  spoke 
nothing,  till  Don  Guzman  shook  him  like  a 
rattle  and  questioned  again.  And  then  he 
said  very  slow-and-sleepily :  'Even  here! 
Dig  here ! '  " 

"  Well,  what  have  I  to  see  with  it  that  he 
did,  you  poor  little  crazed?  What  does  he 
know  about  it?" 

"  Se'or !     He  is  son  of  the  caciques,  as  I 


TTie  have  said ;  and  all  know  that  they  know  where 

Gold  Fish  are  the  tafadas.1     For  superstition,  they  will 

of  Gran    not  use  this  gold  for  themselves,  nor  disclose 

Chimu        its  hiding —  for  to  them  the  idols  are  sacred. 

Only  making  them  drunk  might  one  learn  the 

secret;  and  so  has  done  Don  Guzman,  who 

is  wise  as  a  fox." 

"Foxes  aren't  wise,  my  boy!  They  are 
just  smart  enough  to  make  good  thieves,  not 
smart  enough  to  know  that  every  thief  is  a 
fool.  If  they  didn't  steal,  nobody  would 
chase  them.  But  suppose  the  old  miser  has 
found  the  Big  Fish?" 

"  Pues,  for  sharp  though  he  be,  others  may 
be  sharper!  He  finds  the  melon,  and  we 
will  eat  it !  He  is  digging  with  near  a  hun 
dred  men  over  in  the  big  barrio  —  just  where 
I  minded  me  yesterday  to  dig,  and  so  told  the 
Maestro.  But  to-day  he  will  not  reach.  I 
see  that  it  is  very  thick,  the  wall  of  the  huaca. 
Good.  Then  to-night,  while  he  dreams  of  his 
fishing,  I  will  come-me  with  fifty  peons  that 
I  can  hire  at  a  sol  each  one,  and  go  in  where 
he  has  saved  me  the  most  of  the  work  —  and 

*  Literally  "  covered  things."  The  popular  general 
word,  in  Peru,  for  buried  treasures. 


it  is  a  thing  secured  that  before  dawn  I  will   Fishing 
be  in  the  huaca,  and  the  Fez  Grande  in  my  in  the 
hand!     Only  that,  as  Your  Grace  knows,  I  Dust 
have  neither  white  nor  yellow,1  and  laborers 
will  not  take  the  promise  of  a  boy.    But  only 
with  lending  me  the  fifty  soles  —  then  shall 
Your  Worship  share  justly  in  all  I  find! " 

The  Bullfighter  looked  at  him  steadily  a 
moment,  and  something  renewed  Franco's 
shivers.  Then  the  Americano  answered  very 
low:  — 

"  Thou  hast  much  fortune,  common,  in  be 
ing  very  young !  No !  And  without  thanks ! 
I  want  no  treasure  thou  mayest  steal  from  an 
older  thief  who  makes  drunk  some  poor  fool 
and  coyotes  his  secret.  Vayate,  before  I  have 
to  tell  thee  what  I  think  of  the  pair  of  ye ! " 

"Pere,  Se'or!  —  " 

"  Feet  in  the  dusty,  I  tell  thee !  For  small 
that  thou  art,  one  might  spank  thee ! " 

Franco's  face  spoke  as  much  of  disgust  as 
rage.  Resentment  at  the  suggestion  of  a  nal- 
gueando  for  him,  a  boy  of  sixteen,  was  not 
more  rampant  than  contempt  for  the  man 
who  would  not  put  out  his  hand  to  have  a 

1  Silver  nor  gold. 

[¥7J 


The  treasure  poured  into  it.     How  many  classes 

Gold  Fish  of  a  fool  this  Yanqui  was,  to  be  sure !   Franco 

of  Gran    had  more  than  half  a  mind  to  voice  his  opin- 

Chimu        ion;  but  after  a  glance  at  those  gray  eyes  he 

turned  silently  on  a  sullen  heel,  and  slouched 

away  as  he  had  come.    In  a  dozen  steps  he  was 

out  of  sight  amid  the  maze  of  ruined  walls. 

The  Bullfighter  was  already  stooping  at  one 

of  the  shafts,  receiving  some  husky  news  from 

the  invisible  miner.    "  Yes !  "  he  cried  at  last. 

"Very  extraordinary!     Move  not,  nor  wink, 

till  I  am  down  —  lest  thou  shake  in  earth  and 

disturb  the  arrangement."     In  a  moment 

more  he  had  lowered  the  camera  carefully 

into  the  pit.     He  took  off  the  alforja  and 

the  horsehide  coat,  laying  them  gently  upon 

the  ground,  drove  a  crowbar  into  the  soil, 

and  slipping  a  noose  over  it,  slid  by  the  rope 

into  the  shaft  as  glibly  as  a  spider  spinning 

down  its  line. 

There  must  have  been  something  very 
interesting  in  those  dusty  depths,  for  he  was 
gone  fully  twenty  minutes.  Then  he  came 
up  the  rope,  hand  over  hand,  with  the  same 
strong  ease,  hauled  up  the  hooded  camera, 
and  resumed  the  alforja.  Doubtless  he  would 


have  first  looked  into  that  red-woven  pouch,   Fishing 
could  he  have  had  an  inkling  of  what  had   in  the 
occurred  during  his  absence  from  the  surface.   Dust 
But  he  had  no  suspicion  of  it,  whatever  — 
nor,  indeed,  had  any  one  else  noted  the  head 
peering  from  behind  a  wall,  the  furtive  figure 
sneaking  out  and  rummaging  the  alforja,  and 
then  gliding  off  under  cover  of  the  ruins.     So 
he  went  on  with  his  swift  work,  now  and  then 
cracking  an  extraordinary  smile  of  triumph  at 
the  thought  of  the  find  of  the  whole  week,  —  a 
small  parcel  wrapped  in  a  rag  at  the  bottom 
of  the  alforja.     If  only  he  had  guessed  that 
just  now  it  was  not  there !. 

It  was  even  noon  when  the  Bullfighter  came 
up  out  of  the  shaft.  Half  an  hour  later,  the 
Maestro  was  still  laboring  with  his  notes  in 
the  musty  room  at  Cortiju,  and  not  exactly 
in  a  humor  for  interruptions;  but  the  object 
in  his  hand  was  an  eloquent  apology  for  the 
intruder. 

"Very  well,  Franco,"  he  was  saying. 
"Though,  in  the  compact,  whatever  thou 
shalt  dig  belongs  to  the  expedition,  since 
thy  wages  liberally  cover  thy  whole  time,  yet 
this  is  truly  a  most  extraordinary  antique, 

Op] 


The  and  I  will  pay  thee  for  it  the  fifty  soles  thou 

Gold  Fish  sayest  thy  family  sorely  needs.     But  this  is 

of  Gran    the  last  time,  mind  you,  as  it  is  the  first.     If 

Chimu        we  were  to  make  the  custom  so,  our  hua- 

queros  would  find  very  little,  and  others  would 

bring  much  to  sell  us.     So !    There  is  a  check 

for  the  money.     Good  day." 

Franco  had  no  need  of  the  dismissal.  No 
sooner  was  he  clear  of  the  room  than  he  set 
out  running  at  the  best  of  his  legs;  and  it 
was  not  till  halfway  to  Truxillo  that  he  turned 
from  the  footpath  (for  he  had  avoided  the 
highway)  and  dropped  behind  a  tree  to  rest 
and  think.  That  slender  yellow  paper  had 
to  be  looked  at  again,  and  a  precocious  sneer 
curled  his  lip.  "Then  the  foxes  are  not 
wise,  eh?"  he  muttered,  the  sneer  melting 
into  a  self-satisfied  grin.  "  Perhaps  it  is  be 
cause  all  the  wisdom  is  locked  up  in  the 
gringo  donkeys!  Vaya!"  And  regaining 
his  feet,  he  plodded  more  soberly  away 
toward  the  city. 

For  barely  an  hour's  time,  there  had  been 
a  considerable  change  since  Franco  left  the 
ruins  of  the  Gran  Chimu.  Something  seemed 
to  be  going  on  in  the  Hall  of  the  Arabesques. 


From  ten  of  the  prospect  holes,  no  dust  what-   Fishing 
ever  went  up;  but  about  the  eleventh,  a  lot  in  the 
of  peons  were  working  with  unwonted  energy.    Dust 
Many  bystanders  were  there,  and  others  could 
be  seen  coming  from  different  directions. 
The   ponchoed   cavalier,   too,  had   left  his 
Chinamen  over  yonder  to  their  own  devices, 
and  urged  his  horse  as  close  to  the  spot  as 
even  a  reckless  rider  might.     Then  Gonzalo 
elbowed  through  the  crowd  and  went  racing 
over  the  ridge.     The  Bullfighter  was  photo 
graphing  a  peculiar  mummy  beside  the  shaft 
whence  it  had  been  taken.     He  looked  up 
absently  but  kindly  at  the  lad's  approach. 

"Oh,  if  you  will  come,  Se'or!"  panted 
Gonzalo.  "  For  we  think  to  find  Something 
—  and,  as  the  Maestro  said,  it  is  well  before 
hand  to  have  friends  around  you,  and  not 
strangers  or  indifferents.  Some  are  there 
whom  we  trust  not,  and  we  have  no  defense." 

"  Of  course  I  will ! "  said  the  American, 
heartily.  "For  the  father  of  you,  and  for 
the  son  of  your  father,  I  would  do  a  little. 
Sanchez!"  —  and  he  called  up  a  huaquero 
from  one  of  the  shafts  —  "  Guard  me  these 
things,  and  much  eye  that  no  one  steals  the 


The  antiquities,  nor  so  much  as  breathes  toward 

Gold  Fish  the  instrument.      Vamos,  my  boy." 
of  Gran        Don    Beltran   was   awaiting  them.       He 
Chimu       welcomed  the  Bullfighter  with  only  a  nod, 
but  his  eyes  said  much. 

"  You  will  pardon  the  molestia,  Don  Car 
los?"  he  whispered.  "In  the  tunnel  are 
things  as  I  like;  but  here  above,  not." 

The  younger  man  took  a  swift  glance  about. 
"There  is  no  care,  Don  Beltran.  Go  on  with 
your  work,  and  leave  me  for  guard.  I  will 
answer  for  your  neighbors." 

"  God  pay  you,  friend !  "  The  old  Spaniard 
put  out  his  withered  but  still  sinewy  hand. 
Then,  directing  the  peons  how  to  enlarge 
the  opening,  that  the  sides  might  not  cave 
down,  he  scrambled  into  the  pit  and  was  lost 
in  its  dust,  followed  by  Gonzalo. 

The  volunteer  sentinel  looked  thoughtfully 
about  for  a  moment.  Then  he  walked  over 
to  an  eight-foot  wall  a  couple  of  rods  away, 
jumped  and  caught  the  top  with  his  fingers, 
and  vaulted  up.  After  a  glance  behind,  he 
sat  down  upon  the  wall,  his  heels  dangling 
against  its  face,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  a 
roundabout  hitch  to  his  leathern  belt. 


"I  don't  just  know  which  of  our  amigo*   fishing 
here  the  old  man  is  suspicious  of,"  he  mused,    in  the 
"  but  the  watertight  way  will  be  to  keep  a  Dust 
neighborly  eye  upon  them  all.     I  only  hope 
he  has  struck  it!     It  would  be  good  as  a 
story,  if  the  brave  old  fellow  were  to  save  his 
fortunes  at  the  eleventh  hour  with  stumbling 
upon  a  treasure !     And  I  don't  see  what  any 
one  could  do,  —  they  certainly  wouldn't  have 
the  nerve  to  try  to  jump  his  claim." 

None  of  the  bystanders,  in  fact,  looked 
apt  for  such  desperate  business.  Most  of 
them  were  cholo  mummy-miners;  poor 
enough,  ignorant  enough,  perhaps  none  too 
much  to  be  trusted  face  to  face  with  a  large 
temptation  in  the  dark  —  but  clearly  not 
criminals.  They  had  gathered  more  out  of 
curiosity;  and  if  their  faces  wore  a  shade  of 
envy,  the  sympathy  of  the  craft  was  stronger. 
As  for  the  horseback  cavalier,  he  had  ridden 
off. 

Half  an  hour  went  by,  without  any  new 
developments  from  the  shaft.  The  Bull 
fighter  yawned.  His  seat  was  none  too  soft, 
and  he  had  been  working  "  on  the  jump " 
since  dawn.  At  last  he  got  to  his  feet  upon 


The  the  wall,  stretched  his  arms  and  chest,  and 

Gold  Fish  turned  an  idle  glance  toward  the  declining 
of  Gran    sun.     But  certainly  it  was  not  the  colors  in 
Chimu        the  hazy  west  that  caused  so  sudden  a  jerk 
of  his  shoulders  and  such  a  flash  of  his  eyes. 
He  bounded  from  the  wall,  strode  swiftly  to 
the  top  of  a  low,  long  mound  at  the  back  of 
Don  Beltran's  claim,  and  called  out  in  a  dan 
gerously  polite  voice :  — 

" Alto!  What  does  the  caballero  there?" 
"  What  imports  it  to  the  gringo?  "  retorted 
the  cavalier  with  cool  insolence.  "  Gentle 
men  have  not  to  answer  to  the  rabble.  Dig, 
brutes !  "  He  lifted  his  whip  threateningly 
at  the  gaping  Chinamen. 

"  It  imports  thus  much,  Senor.  You  were 
huaqueando  over  yonder,  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  here.  You  see  Don  Beltran  has  found 
something,  and  you  sneak  up  behind  the 
ridge,  to  dig  in  from  the  other  side  —  and, 
with  your  more  peons,  to  reach  the  supposed 
treasure  before  him.  As  I  have  the  honor  to 
be  his  friend,  I  am  here  to  advise  you  that 
he  is  not  to  be  crowded.  You  will  do  me 
the  infinite  favor  to  remove  your  operations 
the  most  promptly  possible." 


The  horseman  was  clearly  a  person  of  tern-  Fishing 
per,  and  unused  to  dictation,  and  his  rage  in  the 
flashed  up  in  a  storm.    "  Animal !  "  he  yelled,   Dust 
quite  beside  himself,  "out  of  my  sight,  or  I 
will  shoot  you  as  a  dog  and  feed  you  to  my 
dogs  of  Chinos.' " 

As  he  spoke  he  drew  from  under  his  poncho 
a  jeweled  revolver,  and  swung  his  horse 
around  a  hole  to  advance  upon  the  stranger. 

"It  is  worth  more  that  you  try  not  the 
game  of  shots  with  one  who  was  baptized 
to  it  in  New  Mexico,"  the  Bullfighter  said 
slowly  and  in  the  same  tone  of  significant 
formality.  "Must  I?  When  you  ride  to 
shoot,  you  had  better  keep  the  reins  !  " 

Even  as  he  spoke,  his  right  hand  flew  up 
from  his  side  to  the  height  of  his  hat  and 
dropped  a  foot, —  all  in  the  same  indistin 
guishable  motion, —  and  there  was  the  un 
mistakable  crack  of  a  heavy  sixshooter.  The 
cavalier  lurched  backward  in  his  saddle  — 
for  the  ball  had  cut  the  pleated  reins  under 
the  horse's  throat  just  as  he  was  leaning  back 
upon  them.  He  was  a  capital  horseman, 
and  instantly  found  his  seat  again;  but  the 
motion  had  set  the  big  spurs  to  Fleche's  ribs, 


The  and  the  nervous  animal  —  terrified  by  that 

Gold  Fish  and  the  shot  and  the  dangling  rein-ends  and 
of  Gran    the  absence  of  the  accustomed  pressure  of 
Chimu       the  cruel  bit  —  cleared  a  whole  file  of  the 
diggers  at  a  bound,  and  went  off  in  a  whirl 
wind  of  dust.     As  for  the  frightened  China 
men,  they  were  already  scattered  in  every 
direction,  leaving  their  spades. 

The  Bullfighter  smiled  a  dry  little  smile, 
as  if  satisfied  that  the  pistol-hand  had  not 
forgot  its  cunning.  He  carefully  wiped  the 
blued  Colt  and  thrust  it  into  its  scabbard, 
and  sauntered  over  to  the  tunnel,  from  which 
Don  Beltran  was  just  clambering,  blinking 
strangely  through  his  earthy  mask. 


CHAPTER  IV 
A  "Nibble" 

"AND?"    said    the    American,    inquir-  A 

J\  ingly.  " Nibble" 

" Quien  sale?  It  can  be  yes,  it  can  be  no. 
Something  there  is,  in  there,  out  of  the 
common.  The  rooms  are  those  of  the  rich; 
but  what  shall  lie  beyond — come;  we  will 
see  what  has  this  mummy."  The  old  man's 
lips  and  throat  fairly  creaked  as  he  spoke. 
It  is  an  awful  thing,  that  dust  of  the  mummy- 
[57] 


The  mines  —  a  dust  the  like  of  which  is  nowhere 

Gold  Fish  else  in  the  world.  One  might  say  that  it 
of  Gran  has  been  drying  out  ever  since  Time  began. 
Chimu  On  the  coast  of  Peru  it  almost  never  rains; 
and  even  when  it  does,  the  water  rather  runs 
off  than  soaks  in.  Through  millenniums  of 
drouth  and  tropic  sun  the  Peruvian  sands  have 
been  steadily  baking;  and  in  the  ruins,  under 
the  sands,  is  a  dust  drier  yet  —  the  dust  to 
which  we  return.  It  is  literally  humanity 
turned  to  powder.  And  it  is  because  of  this 
extraordinary  dryness  that  articles  under 
these  ruins  are  so  marvelously  preserved 
that  one  can  wear  to-day  a  bit  of  lace  that 
was  buried  beside  a  Yunca  mummy  before 
the  time  of  Alfred  the  Great. 

A  couple  of  laborers  were  carefully  lifting 
a  big  brown  bundle  from  the  pit.  It  was 
something  like  a  huge  carboy,  completely 
enclosed  in  a  wickerwork  of  rushes  woven 
upon  it.  Don  Beltran  deftly  slit  this  bas 
ketry  and  husked  it  from  the  figure.  There 
was  the  same  shape  still,  swathed  in  a  cotton 
cloth  as  coarse  as  burlap,  but  wonderfully 
white.  He  found  the  end  of  this,  cut  the 
stitches  with  which  it  was  caught,  and  began 


to  unwind  it  with  great  care.  Fold  after  A 
fold,  fold  after  fold,  it  reeled  off  like  tape  "Nibble* 
from  a  roll.  Not  till  he  had  unwound  a  full 
fifty  yards  did  the  end  slip  free,  disclosing  a 
still  mysterious  bundle  enveloped  in  woolen 
fabrics  of  brilliant  colors  and  beautiful  pat 
terns.  At  the  top  —  in  the  neck  of  the  bot 
tle,  so  to  speak  —  was  a  carved  wooden  face; 
carved  as  the  best  Swiss  carver  should  have 
been  proud  to  cut  it,  but  with  such  a  type  of 
features  as  no  man  ever  saw  alive  in  Switzer 
land,  and  on  its  brow  a  mat  of  rusty  reddish 
hair. 

"There's  a  treasure  itself!  "  said  the  Bull 
fighter,  judicially.  "  I  know  the  Maestro  will 
want  that  for  our  collection  —  it  is  so  differ 
ent  from  the  usual  grave-mask." 

Meantime  Don  Beltran  was  unwrapping, 
with  even  gentler  fingers,  the  finer  cloths, 
folding  them  and  laying  them  in  a  safe  place. 
At  last  he  came  to  the  core  of  the  bundle  — 
and  there  a  chieftain  of  old  Peru  sat  bare, 
unblinking  at  the  forgotten  sun.  He  was 
squatting,  with  bony  hands  clasped  about  his 
knees,  his  head  bowed  as  if  in  thought,  his 
long  hair  perfect  as  the  day  it  was  last  combed 


The  with  yonder  comb  of  ironwood  in  his  lap, 

Gold  Fish  though  stained  reddish  by  the  nitre  in  the 
of  Gran  soil.  A  slim  turban  of  a  blue  fabric,  filmy 
Chimu  as  lace,  held  back  the  straying  locks,  and 
around  it  was  twined  his  exquisitely  braided 
sling.  A  tall  plume  of  thin  gold  and  a  head 
dress  of  parrot  feathers  nodded  above  his 
brow.  The  skin  was  like  ancient  parch 
ment;  on  his  cheeks  the  red  face-paint  was 
still  bright.  A  pair  of  golden  tweezers,  the 
"  razor  "  of  antiquity,  —  and  to  this  day  many 
aborigines  thus  pluck  out  their  beard  by  the 
roots,  hair  by  hair,  —  hung  by  a  cord  from 
his  neck.  Between  his  jaws  were  thin  plates 
of  gold.  One  of  his  thumbs  was  turned  in 
upon  the  palm,  to  hold  a  tuft  of  cotton  upon 
which  was  the  deep  blue  stain  the  mummy- 
miner  instantly  recognizes.  Gold  remains 
unchanged  —  or  but  a  trifle  dulled  —  through 
the  ages;  copper  and  bronze  are  devoured 
by  a  greedy  green,  which  finally  leaves  only 
a  stain  in  their  place;  and  silver  oxidizes  in 
blue. 

"£a!"   whispered   Don   Beltran.     "But 
he  had  something  about  his  neck." 

The  sun  of  the  Dark  Ages  had  failed  to 
[do] 


He  poured  them  tenderly  from  his  palm  to  that  of 
the  Bullfighter. 


tan  a  narrow  line,  which  was  still  clear  upon  A 
the  ancient  skin.  Ah !  Here  was  the  frayed  "Nibble* 
end  of  a  tiny  cord,  and  upon  it  one  odd- 
shaped  bead.  Just  one  —  but  the  rest  must 
be  here;  and  the  old  expert  began  to  search 
delicately.  One  by  one  he  picked  them  out, 
here  and  there,  in  the  dusty  lap,  in  the  folds 
of  the  cloths  —  until  at  last,  straightening  up, 
he  poured  them  tenderly  from  his  palm  to 
that  of  the  Bullfighter.  Forty-seven  of  these 
little  faceted  prisms  of  transparent  purple ! 
The  younger  man  gloated  over  them  with 
undisguised  delight. 

"  You  are  going  to  break  the  heart  of  my 
friend,  Doctor  Saenz,"  he  said.  "No  one 
ever  before,  among  collectors,  had  such  a 
necklace  of  graven  amethysts  but  he ;  and 
his  two  together  are  not  worth  this  one.  See 
how  finely  they  have  carved  the  crystals  with 
their  rude  tools  of  hard-tempered  bronze! 
Of  course  we  must  have  this  —  and  at  your 
own  price." 

"  Ah !  "  smiled  the  old  Don.  "  You  would 
never  do  to  deal  with  Jacobi,  showing  thus  be 
forehand  how  much  you  make  of  the  thing !" 

"  Ay,  pues,  but  this  is  my  face  in  the  Jews' 
[d/] 


The  street "  —  and  the  shining  countenance  sud- 

Gold Fish  denly  became  like  a  block  of  wood,  as  he 
of  Gran    drawled  in  very  different  Spanish:  "Oh,  de- 
Chimu       scend,  Sigmundo!     I'll  give  just  the  fourth 
part  of  that  price !  " 

Don  Beltran  laughed  outright.  "  In  purity 
of  truth  I  see  not  even  he  could  gain  from 
you.  Neither  can  I.  The  necklace  is  yours 
for  a  hundred  soles" 

"Shame  on  you,  Don  Beltran!  Why, 
Jacob!  himself  would  have  to  give  you  a 
thousand  soles  for  it  —  and  you  know  it." 

"  So  he  should  —  but  my  friends  are  not 
Jacobi.  I  know  its  price,  and  I  make  my 
price.  But  I  have  to  be  in  the  tunnel  again. 
As  for  our  cacique  here,  the  peons  shall  bury 
him  decently  —  for  I  cannot  bear  to  leave 
even  a  mummy  naked  to  the  sky.  His  treas 
ures  he  needs  not  now,  as  do  we  who  have 
not  yet  gone  to  a  better  world;  but  respect 
—  that  he  shall  have  still." 

Just  then  a  dust-cloud  bore  down  on  them 
from  the  west,  and  half  a  dozen  horsemen 
reined  up  at  the  top  of  the  bank.  Five  of 
them  were  in  uniform;  the  sixth  wore  a 
priceless  vicuna  poncho. 


"  There  is  the  assassin,  Senor  Intendente ! "  A 
cried  the  latter,  pointing.     "Seize  him  —  or  "Nibble" 
shoot  him  down,  better,  for  he  is  dangerous." 

"Little  by  little,  Don  Bias,"  rejoined  the 
Intendente.  " Let  us  see,  first  —  eh?  Pos 
sible  ?  Why  did  you  not  tell  me  it  was  the 
young  American  cientifico?  Good  evening, 
Don  Carlos." 

"Good  evening,  Don  Pedro.  It  is  sur 
prise  and  pleasure  to  see  you  here." 

"  In  the  same  degree.  But  Don  Bias  Vis- 
caino  here  accuses  that  you  were  to  murder 
him,  and  we  are  come  to  arrest  you.  Though 
of  a  certainty  I  would  not  have  budged,  had 
I  known  it  was  you." 

"  I  am  at  your  orders,  Senor  Intendente, 
in  any  event  —  but  I  am  no  assassin.  Had 
I  tried  to  kill  the  caballero,  he  would  scarce 
have  given  you  a  needless  ride;  for  I  learned 
the  pistol  where  it  is  no  toy,  but  the  brother 
of  the  frontiersman.  Your  gentleman  thought 
to  undermine  Don  Beltran;  and  when  I  warn 
ed  him  off,  he  drew  a  toilet  pistol  and  prom 
ised  to  shoot  me.  At  that,  for  practice  mine, 
and  instruction  of  him,  I  shot  away  the  reins 
and  set  him  going." 

[4*3 


The  "  Listen,  then !  What  gringo  talk  is  this, 

Gold  Fish  that  such  a  shot  was  by  intention?  He 
of  Gran  laughs  to  your  chin,  Senor  Intendente.  He 
Chimu  went  to  slay  me  —  and  but  that  my  horse  ran 
away,  he  should  have  paid  for  his  crime ! " 

The  Bullfighter  threw  back  his  head,  laugh 
ing  softly.  "  Nay,  then, "  he  said,  "  but  we 
will  not  go  back  to  that  wheat-field.  I  will 
establish  my  words  —  or  to  the  prison  with 
me." 

"  Arrest  him,  Senor !  He  but  makes  some 
trick  to  escape.  Is  it  not  enough,  the  word 
of  a  caballero?  " 

"You  will  hardly  make  me  believe  him  a 
murderer,  Don  Bias.  I  know  him.  But 
since  he  offers  to  repeat  the  shot,  I  should 
like  to  see,  for  these  Norte- Americanos  are 
wonders." 

"  Par  Dios  I  I  will  not  that  he  fire  my 
way  again ! "  Don  Bias  reined  his  horse 
swiftly  behind  the  others. 

"There  is  no  fear,  Senor  Intendente  —  I 
will  not  even  look  toward  the  valiant  cavalier. 
This  sol  will  do." 

He  drew  from  his  pocket  a  Peruvian  silver 
dollar  and  clasped  its  circumference  with  the 


thumb  and  forefinger  of  the  right  hand —  A 
precisely  as  one  takes  a  flat  pebble  to  "  skip  "   "Nibble" 
on  a  pond.     The  sixshooter  lay  cocked  across 
the  palm  of  his  left  hand,  which  was  extended 
nearly  at  arm's  length  before  him  and  as  high 
as  his  shoulder.     Drawing   back   the   right 
hand,   he  scaled  the  coin  with   a   full-arm 
throw.     In  the  same  flash,   the  same  hand 
caught  the  revolver  with  a  curving  downward 
sweep,  and  fired  as  it  swung. 

"  Now  if  you  will  send  one  of  yonrguardtas 
to  look  somewhere  along  the  foot  of  yonder 
big  wall.  And  then  permit  me  to  resume 
my  affairs  with  Don  Beltran." 

In  a  moment  the  private  came  back,  and 
laid  the  coin  in  the  hand  of  his  superior.  A 
broad,  dull  streak  ran  clear  across  the  face  of 
it  from  a  dent  on  one  edge,  and  there  a  tiny 
particle  of  lead  was  lodged. 

"Clear!  It  is  one  he  carries  marked  in 
his  pocket,  to  fool  innocents,"  sneered  Don 
Bias.  But  his  face  was  the  color  of  a  dead 
man's. 

"That  could  be,  too,"  rejoined  the  In- 
tendente,  drily,  "when  he  deals  with  inno 
cents.  But  probably  he  carries  not  a  furnace 

[4fJ 


The  in  his  pocket,  also;  and  you  may  see  that 

Gold  Fish  this  piece  is  still  warm  from  the  impact  of 

of  Gran     the  ball.     I  never  could  have  believed  it  — 

Chimu       but  you  all  saw.     A  thousand  pardons,  Don 

Carlos.     Nor  did  I  doubt  your  word.     As 

for  you,  Don  Bias,   my  advice  is:  'Of  the 

Yanquis,  little ! '     They  are  better  let  alone. 

And  most  certainly  I  counsel  you  not  to  let 

me  hear  that  you  have  further  molested  Don 

Beltran  de  Quesada.     In  honor,  the  claim  of 

the  huaqucro  is  the  same  as  a  gold-mining 

claim  —  and  I  shall  so  hold  it,  sacred  from 

interference.     That  you  pass  good  evening, 

gentlemen." 

The  Intendente  and  his  soldiers  rode  off. 
The  cavalier  in  the  poncho  wavered  a  moment 
between  rage  and  fear,  and  then  spurred  away 
to  his  former  ground. 

"Avail  me  heaven!"  Don  Beltran  said 
earnestly.  "But  such  an  aim  half  gives 
one  to  believe  in  witchcraft." 

"  No  more  magic  in  it,  friend,  than  much 

practice  —  and   the    natural   eye.      In   the 

school  where  I  learned  it,  there  were  many 

better  shots  than  I  —  and  some  worse." 

"The  saints!     But  to   the  tunnel.     Will 


you  enter  ?    There  is  no  care  now  —  since  the  A 
Intendente,    and    that    shot,    no   one    will  "Nibble" 
meddle." 

The  two  men  let  themselves  down  into  the 
shaft,  with  a  long  breath  as  one  takes  at  sink 
ing  under  water.  The  pit  was  about  eight 
feet  deep.  At  its  bottom  a  "  drift "  ran  off 
southerly  and  downward.  In  the  dust  they 
could  no  longer  use  their  eyes;  but,  groping 
for  the  opening,  they  began  to  creep  in 
cautiously  on  hands  and  knees.  Even  for 
that  posture,  the  passage  was  at  times  too 
low,  and  their  heads  kept  knocking  down 
lumps  of  pulverized  earth  which  nearly 
smothered  them.  There  was  always  danger, 
too,  of  a  cave- in  that  would  crush  them  to 
death  —  for  in  mummy-mining  one  does  not 
timber  the  tunnels.  The  Bullfighter  lighted 
his  pocket  lantern,  and  they  crept  on.  Now, 
opening  their  eyes  for  an  instant,  they  saw 
adobe  masonry  ahead ;  and,  worming  through 
a  gap  in  this  underground  wall,  were  in  a  lit 
tle  adobe  cell  six  feet  square,  roofed  with 
poles.  The  peons  had  cleared  it  out,  and  a 
breach  in  the  farther  wall  showed  where  they 
had  gone  on. 


The  "  I  know  not  what  this  shall  be,"  said  Don 

Gold  Fish  Beltran  in  his  companion's  ear.     "There  is 

of  Gran    a  world  of  these  little  rooms  here,  four  rooms 

Chimu        thick  and  in  two  tiers,  one  upon  the  other. 

How  long  the  row  is,  right  and  left,  I  do  not 

yet  know,  —  till  now,  we  have  only  pierced 

it  crosswise.    Understood,  that  all  these  cells 

were  full  with  earth;  and  it  was  in  the  fourth 

they  found  the  mummy  we  have  just  searched, 

sitting  upon  an  adobe  bench.    Beyond  is  what 

seems  a  hall,  and  in  the  further  wall  of  that, 

a  doorway  bricked  up  with  adobes.     There 

is  where  I  have  the  hope.    Is  it  not  a  strange 

arrangement  —  and  a  promising  one?" 

They  crawled  on  from  little  room  to  little 
room.  In  the  fourth  a  peon  was  passing  the 
dust  of  the  floor  through  a  small  sieve. 

"But  not  to  waste  time  with  these,"  said 
the  old  man  to  him.  "  Get  thee  to  helping 
them  that  carry  out  the  earth.  We  are  for 
great  things,  now,  or  nothing  —  toys  will  not 
ransom  the  Moche." 

Three  negroes  came  crawling  through  from 
beyond,  tugging  rawhide  sacks  of  earth  to 
empty  at  the  mouth  of  the  shaft.  Don  Bel 
tran  and  the  Bullfighter  entered  the  hole 


whence  they  had  emerged.     Here  Gonzalo,   A 

with  two  feeble  candles,  was  digging  cau-   "Nibble" 

tiously,  and  at  the  same  time  directing  the 

peons.     The  place  did  look  to  be  a  narrow 

hall.     It  was  six  feet  wide,  and  they  had 

cleared  out  some  ten  feet  lengthwise.    The 

roof  was  still  strong  enough  to  protect  them 

from  a  serious  cave-in,  though   constantly 

sifting  down  a  thick  dust  upon  them.     Its 

rafters  were  crooked  trunks  of  small  trees, 

—  all  but  two,  and  they  were  ribs  of  some 

whale  that  had  drifted  upon  the  beach  in  the 

ancient  days.     Midway  of  the  farther  wall 

was  a  clearly  defined   doorway,  walled  up 

solid  with  the  same  adobe  masonry. 

"To  see,  then!  "  cried  Don  Beltran,  seiz 
ing  an  iron  bar.  "  I  wished  you  to  be  here 
at  the  entering." 

He  pecked  eagerly  at  the  tough  mud  bricks. 
An  elfish  thing  it  was,  to  watch,  here  thirty 
feet  under  the  ground :  the  crazy  candles  and 
brave  little  lantern  fighting  at  odds  with  the 
gloom;  the  dull,  close  air  stifling  thick  with 
the  dust  of  what  was  life  so  many  ages  ago; 
and  that  swaying  shadow  swinging  the  bar, 
peck,  peck,  peck,  against  the  ancient  wall. 


The  Presently  Don  Beltran  had  loosened  one 

Gold  Fish  adobe.  With  this  gap  made,  he  pried  out 
of  Gran  the  next  more  easily;  the  third  more  easily 
Chimu  still.  In  another  five  minutes  he  had  removed 
enough  to  leave  a  hole  a  couple  of  feet  square, 
through  which  the  dust  from  beyond  came 
sliding  about  their  feet.  Only  under  high 
excitement  could  so  old  a  man  have  worked 
so  long  in  such  air,  and  now  Don  Beltran 
staggered.  The  Yanqui  caught  him  gently 
under  the  arms  and  laid  him  down;  and  tak 
ing  a  spade,  began  to  shovel  earth  into  one 
of  the  zurroncs  which  a  peon  held  open. 
That  was  soon  filled,  and  the  cholo  dragged 
it  off  toward  the  upper  world,  while  another 
brought  his  pouch  for  a  load. 

Several  times  the  Bullfighter  flung  himself 
down,  gasping  upon  the  floor,  burying  his 
face  in  his  sleeve  to  escape  the  dust,  while  a 
peon  continued  the  digging.  Then  he  would 
get  up  again  and  go  at  it  as  hard  as  ever. 
Already  the  sliding  soil  disclosed  a  consider 
able  space  of  roof  and  wall  in  the  new 
chamber. 

Then  the  spade  felt  something  which  half 
resisted,  half  yielded.  Even  the  Bullfighter 


He  scaled  the  coin  with  a  full-arm  throw. 


had  dug  enough  in  Peruvian  ruins  to  know  A 

what  it  meant.     He  stooped  swiftly,  reach-  "Nibble" 

ing  out  his  hand  to  grope  in  the  dust.     Then 

he  suddenly  straightened  up,  scraped  a  little 

avalanche  of  dust  down  over  the  spot,  and 

backed  out  into  the  passage  with  a  little  twist 

in  the  corner  of  his  dusty  mouth. 

"Come,  hijito,  and  dig  a  little,"  he  said 
to  Gonzalo,  very  soberly.  "Perhaps  thou 
shalt  bring  luck." 

Gonzalo  did  not  wait  for  a  second  bidding, 
but  sprang  into  the  gap  with  undisguised 
delight.  That  is  the  fever  of  it !  This  boy, 
—  who  in  six  hours  had  drawn  hardly  as  many 
breaths  without  such  pain  as  one  has  who 
smothers  in  a  burning  house ;  who  had  been 
working,  all  those  hours,  as  one  can  work 
only  under  keen  excitement;  whose  hands 
were  blistered  and  back  aching;  whose  eyes, 
mouth,  nostrils,  throat,  lungs,  and  pores 
were  almost  buried  alive  in  the  dust  which 
had  invaded  them,  —  this  boy  springing  to  a 
new,  hard  task  as  eagerly  as  if  he  had  never 
heard  of  discomfort! 

He  had  not  dug  three  spade-thrusts  when 
he  cried  out  loudly  —  and  even  with  the  jar 
[7*] 


Thf  of  his  voice,  a  barrow-load  of  soil  pattered 

Gold  Fish  down  in  the  passage.     He  fell  upon  his  knees 

of  Gran    and  ran  his  bare  arm  shoulder-deep  in  the 

Chimu       dust,  and  brought  out  a  battered  object,  with 

which   he  came   stumbling   to   the   nearest 

candle. 

"  Bravo !  "  cried  his  father,  wiping  off  the 
dust  till  a  blue  surface  was  visible.  "Where 
silver  vases  are  so  large,  better  things  may 
be."  And  the  Bullfighter,  smiling  till  his 
mask  of  caked  dust  cracked  clear  across, 
added:  "A  hundred  soles  the  shovelful! 
Look  what  a  huaquero  is  this  Gonzalo !  " 

But  the  boy  hardly  heard.  He  was  already 
back  in  his  stope,  worrying  the  flour-like  soil. 
In  another  moment  he  reappeared  in  the  pas 
sage  with  another  vase. 

"They  are  twins,"  said  Don  Beltran,  be 
ginning  to  fire  up  too.  "  But  hast  thou  not 
yet  made  room  so  that  another  might  work 
in  there  with  thee?" 

"Ye-es  —  but  oh,  tata,  it  is  a  so-little 
room  —  let  me  find  what  is!  /want  to  be 
the  one  to  make  you  rich !  " 

"  It  were  doubly  welcome  at  thy  hand,  son. 
But  even  for  that,  we  must  not  lose  much 


time.    Yet  a  little  longer  thou  —  and  then  let  A 
'Lipe  help  thee."  "Nibble" 

"  Ea  !  But  this  is  a  deposito  of  vases,  and 
all  silver!  "  For  Gonzalo  had  flung  out  two 
more.  All  four  were  about  of  a  size  —  tall, 
tapering,  and  of  some  two  quarts'  capacity 
each.  But  all  differed  in  the  crude  embossed 
figures  hammered  up  around  the  rim  —  as 
the  Bullfighter  was  satisfying  himself,  lying 
alongside  his  lantern  and  rubbing  off  the 
blue  "rust"  with  his  tough  palm. 

Don  Beltran  had  been  holding  his  hands 
clasped  about  his  knees,  with  a  tension  at 
the  knuckles  which  showed  that  he  was  also 
holding  his  impatience.  But  now  he  leaned 
forward  with:  "Puts,  we  must  not  delay 
more,  even  for  the  lad's  delight.  Anda, 
'Lipe." 

'Lipe  was  crawling  into  the  hole,  when 
Gonzalo  burst  out  so  impetuously  as  to  send 
the  big  peon  sprawling  against  the  farther 
wall. 

"Mira!"  cried  the  lad,  shrilly.  "The 
weight  of  it !  The  weight  of  it !  Here  is  no 
silver !  Rub  it  and  see !  " 

He  was  hugging  to  him  a  tall  jar  a  foot  in 


The  diameter,  and  flinging  himself  to  his  knees 

Gold  Fish  beside  his  father,  he  held  it  out,  gasping. 
of  Gran  The  old  man  caught  it  by  the  edge;  and  as 
Chimu  he  lifted  it,  his  hand  suddenly  shivered. 

"Don  Carlos,"  he  said  faintly,  — and  laid 
a  hand  softly  upon  the  Bullfighter's  knee  — 
"I  —  think  —  we  have  a  bite  of  the  Fez 
Grande!" 


CHAPTER  V 

A  Night  in   the  Ruins 

GOD  send  it  so!  "    answered  the  Bull-  A  Night 
fighter,  earnestly,  pressing   the  old  in  the 
man's  hand.    "But  to  me,  the  room  promises  Ruins 
to  be  small  for  that.     The  Fez  Grande  they 
would  hardly  divide;  and  it  would  need  a 
very  great  chamber.  Not  that  we  are  yet  sure 
how  large  this  room  is;  and  even  though  the 
Big  Fish  be  not  here,  there  may  be  a  'fish' 
big  enough  for  all  needs.     But  come,  amigo 
• — already  it  is  very-night,  and  you  must  rest. 
[75] 


The  You  are  too  old  for  this,  and  the  boy  too 

Gold  Fish  young.     If  the  Big  Fish  be  here,  he  will  not 

of  Gran    have  swum  away  by  morning." 

Chimu  "  Ah,  so  little  fevered !     Nor  am  /  a  gold- 

crazy,  either.  It  is  only  that  this  means  to 
lose  or  to  save  my  home  —  only  for  that  I  am 
so  spurred.  But  you  have  reason.  The  boy 
must  sleep.  And  for  me  —  ay  I  I  am  shak 
ing!" 

Don  Beltran  had  risen,  but  now  suddenly 
sank  back.  The  Bullfighter  twisted  him  across 
his  thicl:  young  shoulders  and  packed  him  out 
of  the  shaft,  followed  by  Gonzalo.  After  a 
breathless  scramble  on  all  fours,  they  were 
out  under  the  dim,  fresh  sky —  and  how  good 
it  seemed  to  get  an  honest  breath  again !  As 
they  gasped  and  gulped  greedily  at  the  salty 
air,  one  of  them  saw  himself  back  in  Colorado 
watching  poor  old  Jack  —  the  mule  brought 
up  to  the  surface  for  the  first  time  in  five  years 
—  and  how  the  blinded  brute  went  mad  with 
very  joy  of  the  light  and  air  and  forgotten 
grass. 

A  few  moments  revived  Don  Beltran  from 
his  swoon.  "We  will  rest  us  even  here,"  he 
said,  sitting  up.  "I  could  not  leave  it." 


"  I  would  stay,  too,  but  I  promised  the  A  Night 
Maestro,  and  it  is  already  late."  in  the 

The  Bullfighter  looked  at  his  watch  in  its  Ruins 
"  dust-proof "  case.  It  had  stopped.  "  Our 
watchmakers  don't  know  the  mummy-dust," 
he  smiled,  turning  to  the  Southern  Cross. 
"By  the  stars  it  should  be  about  eleven 
o'clock,  so  I  must  hurry.  Keep  this  with 
you,  in  case  of  need  to  guard  your  mine  "  — 
and  unbuckling  his  belt  he  handed  his  six- 
shooter  to  the  old  man. 

"No!  You  more  need  it,  going  back  to 
Cortiju  by  night  —  for  in  these  pauper 
times  the  bandits  are  a  wonder." 

"There  is  no  care,"  answered  the  other, 
lightly.  "Four  years  I  was  practicing  the 
Bok-kess1  daily,  and  my  fists  suffice.  Except 
for  the  excavations  I  wouldn't  be  bothered 
with  the  pistol  —  getting  a  permit  and  all 
that.  Rest  well  and  I  will  see  you  early. 
Till  the  morning,  then  "  —  and  he  was  gone 
before  Don  Beltran  could  expostulate  further. 

The  night  had  suddenly  become  very  dark. 

1  There  is  no  Spanish  word  for  boxing ;  and  this  bor 
rowed  word  is  hard  for  a  Spaniard  to  pronounce.  This 
is  as  near  as  he  comes  to  it. 

[77] 


The  The  fog,  considerably  behind  time,  was  now 

Gold  Fish  rolling  in  heavily,  and  had  quite  drowned  the 
of  Gran  stars.  The  Bullfighter  went  stumbling  over 
Chimu  the  uneven  surface ;  he  knew  the  ground  well, 
and  in  spite  of  trips  threaded  his  way  rapidly 
through  the  maze  of  walls  and  mounds  and 
pitfalls.  His  head  was  buzzing  with  excite 
ment;  for  though  he  had  talked  coolly,  he 
believed  Don  Beltran  had  "struck  it."  Not 
the  "Big  Fish,"  probably  —  the  chamber 
looked  wrong  for  that,  to  his  notion  —  but 
at  any  rate,  some  sort  of  topada.  May  be 
enough  to  set  the  dear  old  man  upon  his 
feet  again. 

Suddenly  it  was  as  if  a  cold  cloud  had  fal 
len  across  his  brain.  The  fire  of  his  thoughts 
went  out  instantly,  and  he  stopped  short  with 
an  involuntary  shiver. 

"What  thing?'  he  muttered  in  bewilder 
ment.  "What  ails  me?  Say!  Something 
is  wrong  here ! "  He  thrust  his  chin  out 
in  the  darkness.  "Am  I  learning  to  dream 
nightmares  awake?" 

He  pushed  on  very  slowly  now,  with  ears 
alert,  and  that  aggressive  chin  poked  for 
ward.  There  was  nothing  to  be  seen,  nothing 

[7*] 


to  be  heard.     He  edged  a  little  away  from  A  Night 
the  foot  of  a  big  wall  he  had  been  following;   in  the 
and  half  faced  toward  it  as  he  reached  its  Ruins 
end. 

There  was  a  desperate  rush  in  the  darkness; 
then  three  sodden  thumps  in  swift  succession. 
He  had  struck  out  right  and  left,  and  each  fist 
found  a  mark.  But  in  almost  the  same  instant 
a  dull,  red  light  seemed  to  smite  his  eyes,  a 
sound  as  of  crashing  timbers  filled  his  head, 
and  he  went  down  like  a  log. 

But  the  ponchoed  gentleman  on  horseback 
was  by  no  means  satisfied,  when  he  had  in 
spected  the  job.  "  Fools,  and  sons  of  fools ! " 
he  snarled.  "  Why  did  you  strike  so  hard  ? 
Do  you  think  the  skull  of  a  man  is  made  of 
algorrobo  wood,  that  such  clubs  cannot  crack 
it?  And  I  clearly  told  you  to  get  him  alive, 
for  /  had  an  account  to  settle  with  him.  Ea  I 
And  these  two  swine  that  he  smote,  we  have 
them  to  carry  off,  lest  they  lie  here  till  they 
be  seen.  A  diosl  What  class  of  fists  have 
these  gringoes  that  exercise  them  with  the 
Bok-kess  ?  Pepe  and  Juancho  lie  as  if  a 
wall  had  befallen  them.  Stir,  pigs !  Fling 
them  across  the  crupper,  and  I  will  pack  them 


The  to  the  hacienda.     And  for  the  gringo  — puts, 

Gold  Fish  here  is  too  near  the  road.     Haul  him  over  to 
of  Gran    the  Big  Barrio  and  drop  him  in  a  pit." 
Chimu 

But  the  Bullfighter  was  not  quite  so  dead 
as  all  that.  If  not  altogether  of  ironwood, 
his  skull  was  a  wonderfully  tough  one  —  tough 
enough  to  have  cheated  the  murderers.  Along 
in  the  first  gray  of  dawn,  consciousness  began 
to  come  back  to  him  —  and  with  it  madden 
ing  pains  in  the  head.  Stupidly  he  tried  to 
roll  over,  but  relinquished  the  effort  with  a 
groan.  He  was  lying  at  the  bottom  of  a  long, 
deep  trench,  sprawled  and  doubled  over  a 
heap  of  cobblestones  that  were  wet,  this 
morning,  for  the  first  time  in  years  and  red 
for  perhaps  quite  the  first  time.  Off  to  the 
right  an  enormous  wall  loomed  up  in  the 
dark;  and  near  it  he  presently  became  aware 
of  a  great  rolling  cloud. 

"  What  —  er  —  where  am  I  ?  "  he  thought, 
as  his  senses  began  to  clear.  "Yon  wall 
looks  to  me  like  one  of  the  Big  Barrio.  I 
certainly  did  not  lie  down  here  —  for  I  was 
sober,  and  not  wholly  insane.  Where  was  I 
last  ?  Eh  —  so !  I  knocked  somebody  down, 

[*>] 


and  then  —  the  sky  fell  on  me,  I  guess !     I  A  Night 
remember,  now.     But  that  wasn't  here.     To  in  the 
see ! "  Ruins 

Clenching  his  teeth,  he  struggled  up  out  of 
the  trench,  at  last,  and  lay  spent  with  the  pain 
of  the  effort.  There  seemed  to  be  a  hum  as 
of  voices  not  far  off,  and  he  started  to  call  out, 
but  closed  his  mouth  and  dragged  himself 
toward  the  sound.  He  was  sore  in  need  of 
help,  but  that  gashed  skull  reminded  him  that 
it  would  be  better  first  to  know  upon  whom 
he  called.  His  crawling  progress  was  slow 
and  full  of  torture ;  but  at  last  he  came  to  the 
top  of  a  steep  little  slope,  and  peered  over 
the  wall  at  its  top  to  the  hollow  beyond. 

Dark  figures  in  motion  were  there;  and, 
even  more  visible,  a  great  cloud  that  rolled 
up  like  smoke  from  under  their  feet.  "  Some 
body  must  have  struck  a  pay  streak,"  he 
mused,  "  thus  to  be  digging  all  night.  Well, 
hitaqueros  won't  hurt  me  — "  and  he  was 
again  about  to  call,  but  bit  down  upon  the 
sound  just  in  time.  For  down  in  the  hollow 
a  too  well-known  voice  was  crying:  "More 
force,  lazies!  It  fails  little  of  dawn,  and 
we  must  be  done." 

[*/] 


The  "  Seven  million  monkeys !  "  the  wounded 

Gold  Fish  man  ejaculated  under  his  breath.     "Where 

of  Gran    under  the  moon  did  the  boy  raise  the  money? 

Chimu       Somebody  has  'staked '  him,  and  here  he  is 

coyoting  the   old  miser's  claim,  after  all. 

No,  if  my  head  aches  off,  I  won't  call  him! 

The  little  rat  —  even  his  mercy  would  smell 

of  thievery.    But  since  he  invited  me  to  share 

the  burglary,  I  suppose  I'm  welcome  to  lie 

here  and  watch  it." 

Just  then  there  was  a  sudden  commotion, 
down  yonder,  of  crowding  figures  and  low 
cries  of  "They  have  reached!  One  has 
broken  through  to  the  chamber!  Now  to 
see  the  Fez  Grande ! "  Then  Franco  was 
heard  again,  nervously  urging  them  to  dig 
fast. 

The  foggy  east  began  to  light  up  a  little, 
and  the  Bullfighter  could  see  more  clearly. 
Fifty  peons  were  bunched  at  the  foot  of  the 
adobe  pyramid,  digging  for  dear  life;  and 
the  boy  employer  was  hopping  about  like  a 
grasshopper  in  hysterics,  exhorting,  plead 
ing,  threatening,  promising,  directing. 

From  the  mouth  of  the  big  pit  rolled  out 
a  great  cloud  as  from  a  volcanic  crater.    They 
[**] 


must  be  clearing  the  chamber  very  fast  — •  but  A  Night 
as  yet  there  were  no  outcries.      Presently  in  the 
even   the   low  buzz  began  to  wane.      The  Ruins 
peons  turned  now  and  then  to  look  at  one 
another  as  they  shoveled;  and  Franco  was 
running  to  and  fro  on  the  bank  like  a  crazy 
boy. 

"  Will  you  never  be  done  in  there  ?  "  he 
cried  at  last,  bending  over  the  brink;  and  his 
voice  was  like  a  rusty  hinge.  "  It  is  making 
day.  Haven't  you  found  it  yet?"  He 
rushed  up  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  and  looked 
off  toward  Truxillo;  and  tore  down  to  the 
excavation  again.  "Jumping! "  he  fairly 
shrieked.  "Already  I  see  the  dust  at  Cor- 
tiju  —  the  Stingy  is  coming!  Let  me  in 
there!" 

He  dove  down  out  of  sight  in  the  dust- 
cloud.  The  laborers  above  straightened  up 
over  their  spades,  nodding  significantly  to 
one  another.  Two  minutes  after  a  huge 
zambo  clambered  out,  hauling  the  boy  kindly 
by  the  arm.  Franco  was  limp  and  ghastly. 

"It  is  too  bad,  young  sir,"  said  a  digger 
with  evident  sympathy.  "But  now  it  is  to 
go  —  for  in  a  breath  Don  Guzman  will  be 


The  here,  and  it  is  not  I  that  have  compliments 

Gold  Fish  to  swap  with  him  here.     Our  wage,  then,  and 

of  Gran    we  are  gone." 

Chimu  "I  will  pay  ye  in  Truxillo,"  whined  the 

boy.  "  Here  is  no  time  for  counting  soles 
and  noses.  Vamos,  and  at  home  you  shall 
have  the  money." 

"  Of  truth,  my  sir?  "  The  big  peon  spoke 
sarcastically.  "Look  you,  young  master! 
The  Englisher  that  ten  years  ago  deserted 
his  cholo  wife  and  their  child,  here  in  Tru 
xillo,  —  he  owes  me  still  for  the  work  of  a 
week.  And  his  son  will  pay  me  before  he 
budges  from  this  place." 

Franco  groaned  and  glanced  desperately 
about;  but  what  he  saw  in  their  faces  set  him 
to  shoveling  down  into  his  pockets.  One 
after  another  he  emptied  them  of  their  heavy 
load,  till  his  tattered  hat  was  brimming  with 
the  silver  dollars.  He  rose  from  his  knees 
with  a  sob,  the  hat  sagging  heavy  between  his 
hands.  Then  a  swift,  foxy  light  flared  in  his 
eyes,  and  the  end  of  the  sob  had  a  queer, 
chuckling  ring.  Still  clutching  the  rim,  he 
flung  his  hands  up  and  out,  one  higher  than 
the  other,  and  whirling  on  his  heel  like  the 

CM 


pivot  of  a  pinwheel  that  flings  its  sparks  in  A  Night 
every  direction,  fled  down  the  barrio  like  a  in  the 
gray  shadow.     Almost  before  the  shower  of  Ruins 
silver  had  ceased  to  patter  on  the  dust,  he 
was  out  of  the  hollow.     The  peons  stared 
after  him  with  a  gasp,  and  fell  upon  their 
knees,  groping  in  the  dust  for  the  scattered 
coins.     No  use  to  follow  him  —  the  money 
was  here;  and  if  they  did  not  get  it  now, 
they  never  would. 

As  for  the  Bullfighter,  up  behind  his  wall, 
he  gasped  too. 

"  Canary !  "  he  muttered.  "  But  if  ever  a 
boy  was  born  to  fit  a  rope,  there  he  goes ! 
Because  his  sneak-thief  trick  fails,  he  is  con 
soled  with  torturing  the  poor  peons  that  have 
been  working  like  dogs  for  him.  He  must 
be  poison  all  through." 

Such  another  rooting  was  never  seen  in 
Gran  Chimu  —  nor  anywhere  else ;  unless  it 
may  have  been  when  Circe  flung  that  hand 
ful  of  acorns  to  remind  Ulysses  that  his  two- 
legged  pigs  had  not  yet  forgotten  their  bris 
tles.  The  only  disinterested  spectator  would 
have  roared  in  spite  of  his  mangled  head,  had 
not  his  heart  been  sorer  still  with  thought  of 

Mf] 


The  the  boy;  and  even  in  his  repugnance  a  smile 

Gold  Fish  flickered  on  the  blue  lips.     The  poor  peons 
of  Gran    were  wallowing  and  clawing  in  the  deep  dust, 
Chimu        jostling  one  another,  sifting  the  soil  through 
their  fingers,  in  an  agony  of  haste.     Now  and 
then  one  would  thrust  his  hand  swiftly  or  fur 
tively  into  his  pocket,  and  then  resume  his 
scratching. 

All  leaped  to  their  feet  as  a  low,  search 
ing  voice  called:  "Feet-in-dusty,  lads! 
Don  Guzman  comes !  "  Some  looked  about 
in  wonder;  others  gazed  hungrily  at  the 
ground,  whose  silver  harvest  was  not  yet  all 
gathered;  and  then  all  scurried  away  through 
a  walled  alley.  Three  minutes  later,  the 
Miser  came  puffing  over  the  southwestern 
ridge,  followed  by  his  hundred  laborers. 

Now  the  watcher's  smile  was  uncon 
strained.  He  hitched  up  on  his  elbow,  the 
better  to  look  down  through  his  little  gap  in 
the  adobe  wall.  It  was  quite  light,  and  even 
faces  were  now  clear,  down  there.  Don  Guz 
man  had  plainly  been  walking  fast,  but  his 
sour  countenance  glowed  with  something 
warmer  than  exercise.  "What  a  heart  must 
one  carry,  to  own  such  a  face !  "  thought  the 


watcher.      "Even  hope,  which  transfigures  A  Night 
the  plainest,  only  makes  him  the  uglier."        in  the 

The  Miser  half  turned  as  he  neared  the  Ruins 
excavation,  and  beckoned  his  peons  with  an 
impatient  sweep  of  the  arm.  "  More  speed, 
lazies!  And  to  work,  even  as  you  left  off. 
Five  soles  to  him  who  shall  first  —  Holiest 
Mother!  Robbed!  Robbed!"  His  voice 
rose  to  a  howl,  and  he  tottered  upon  the  brink 
of  the  great  pit. 

The  peons  came  running  up  with  grunts 
and  cries  of  wonder.  Certain  it  was  that 
the  excavation  was  twice  as  large  as  they  had 
left  it  at  dark  last  night. 

"It  will  be  witchcraft!"  whined  one  fel 
low,  glancing  about  nervously;  but  the  Miser 
flew  at  him  like  a  fury.  "  What  witches? 
Nor  what  weathervanes ! "  he  screamed. 
"  What  have  brujos  to  say  with  money  or  with 
gold  ?  A  thief  and  son  of  thieves  has  come 
while  we  slept  and  stolen  my  treasure !  I  am 
ruined,  then  —  ruined!  Three  hundred  soles 
thrown  to  the  dogs,  and  all  that  some  shame 
less  should  steal  my  prize.  To  see  if  they 
have  left  nothing! " 

He  plunged  into  the  excavation  followed 


The  by  the  slower  peons.     In  a  moment  he  was 

Gold  Fish  out  again,  dashing  his  candle  viciously  un- 
of  Gran    derfoot  and  tearing  his  scrawny  beard. 
Chimu  "  All !     All !  "  he  bawled.     "  It  is  bare  as  a 

broken  jar.  They  left  not  so  much  as  a  can 
dle-end.  Ay  de  mi,  wretched  that  I  am,  who 
have  wasted  my  substance  to  make  another 
rich!" 

"But,  master,"  ventured  a  cholo  who  had 
tarried  longer  in  the  tunnel,  "  come  and  look 
yet  again.  For  neither  did  the  thief  find 
anything,  or  my  eyes  are  fools ! " 

"Fools  they  are,  and  their  owner!  For 
what  should  be  so  great  a  chamber,  if  not  to 
hold  the  Big  Fish?  Ay  I  Ay!  Ay!" 

"But  come  and  see,  nevertheless,"  per 
sisted  the  laborer.  "Nothing  was  in  that 
chamber  when  it  was  opened,  so  all  the  signs 
say.  Not  so,  Juan?" 

"Clear! "  answered  the  peon  appealed  to. 
"Any  one  may  see  that  they  found  nothing." 

Incredulous  still,  Don  Guzman  accom 
panied  them  back  into  the  huaca.  When  he 
emerged  his  face  was  purple. 

"There  is  but  one  thief  —  that  barbarian 
Bartolo !     And  I  will  bring  him  in  the  courts ! 
[«*] 


He  shall  rot  in  jail !     Did  I  not  waste  a  dime  A  Night 
and  a  half   of   good  wine  to   disclose   his  in  the 
tongue  ?     And  when  I  had  brought  him  here  Ruins 
to  Chimii  with  pain  of  my  joints  and  asked 
him,  'Where?  where,  brute?  '  he  said,  'Here ! 
Dig  even  here ! '     Shameless !     But  he  shall 
pay !     Three  hundred  soles  and  fifteen  cents 
—  yes,  and  the  costs  of  my  sorrow! " 

"Don  Guzman!11 

The  Miser  started,  at  this  unknown  voice, 
but  then  sank  down  stupidly  upon  the  ground, 
flinging  dust  upon  his  hair,  bewailing  his 
three  hundred  soles  and  fifteen  cents,  and 
anon  cursing  the  "barbaro." 

The  call  came  again.  Above  the  wall  up 
yonder  a  hand  waved  something  round  and 
shiny.  Don  Guzman  sprang  to  his  feet  and 
clambered  up  the  slope  with  alacrity,  but  at 
sight  of  that  ghastly  face  and  matted  head 
recoiled  in  horror. 

"There  is  no  fear,"  said  the  young  man, 
faintly  but  clearly.  "  Some  one  bumped-me 
the  head,  last  night,  and  I  cannot  help  my 
self.  Lend  me  a  pair  of  peons  to  carry  me 
to  Cortiju,  and  you  shall  have  five  soles  — 
and  I  will  pay  them  besides." 


The  "Money    counted?       For   I    have   been 

Gold  Fish  robbed,  Senor,  of  a  great  sum,  and  cannot 

of  Gran    waste  time  on  credit." 

Chimu  "  Yes,  yes !     Only  with  haste,  or  not  a  real 

do  you  get." 

In  half  an  hour  two  burly  negroes  brought 
the  limp  burden  upon  their  shoulders  into 
the  west  room  at  Cortiju.  The  Maestro 
sprang  up,  suddenly  pale.  "  What  have  ye 
done  to  him  ?  Ach,  my  poor  boy !  In  the 
bed  there  —  and  gently,  oxen !  Now  call  me 
the  doctor  from  Truxillo." 

"What  an  escape!"  he  ejaculated,  when 
he  had  bandaged  the  broken  head  and  heard 
the  story.  Then  in  his  familiar  way  again : 
"I'm  glad  that  head  is  good  for  something! 
But  come,  here's  better  medicine  than  the 
doctor  will  bring  you.  You  young  crank! 
/know  your  blood  —  if  you  were  ever  quite 
dead  (which  I  doubt  is  possible)  I'd  bring 
you  to  life  again  with  just  holding  a  rare 
curio  to  you !  " 

With  which  extravagance,  half  satire,  half 
affection,  he  went  over  and  dived  into  his 
desk,  returning  with  his  right  hand  elevated 
and  closed. 


"  Now,  then,  let  me  see  a  little  more  color  A  Night 
in  that  whetstone  of  a  face !  "     He  opened  in  the 
his  fingers  and  thrust  his  hand  before  the  Ruins 
inquiring  eyes.     But  curiously  enough,  what 
little  color  was  in  the  pale  cheek  left  it  at 
once.     The  blue  lips  parted  and  then  pursed 
together  again. 

"  Eh  ?  Ever  see  the  like  ?  Of  course  you 
didn't !  It  is  a  unique,  I  can  tell  you  —  not 
another  like  it  in  any  collection  on  earth. 
Do  you  see  ?  It  is  inlaid,  silver  on  gold,  the 
whole  body  —  even  the  pattern  of  the  tunic. 
And  those  eyes!  Did  you  ever  see  better 
emeralds  of  their  size?  But  I'm  a  brute! 
Pardon  me,  my  poor  boy  —  you  are  too 
weak." 

The  "poor  boy"  shook  his  head  with  a 
grim  little  smile.  "  Oh,  no !  But  whence  is 
it?  Can  there  be  two ?  Have  you  also  been 
huaqueando?  " 

"  Two  —  I  should  say  not !  What  are  you 
talking  about?  Franco  dug  it  up;  and  in 
spite  of  my  rule,  I  gave  him  fifty  soles  for  it, 
as  he  said  his  family  was  in  great  distress  for 
the  money." 

The  wounded  man  bit  his  lip.     Then  he 


The  said  quietly :  "  Well,  you  certainly  were  jus- 

Gold  Fish  tified.     It  is  a  priceless  find,  and  we  are  get- 

of  Gran    ting  it  cheap.     And  fifty  soles  reminds  me  — 

Chimu        I  want  you  to  hold  back  fifty  from  my  salary. 

Never  mind   why  —  I   don't    like   to   talk 

about  my  blunders,  but  I  don't  intend  the 

expedition  shall  pay  for  them." 

"  As  you  will,  my  boy.  And,  by  the  way, 
I  just  got  a  despatch  from  Lima.  Congress 
passed  the  National  Museum  law  at  last 
night's  session!" 


CHAPTER  VI 

"And   this   is   what   they   call   Rain!" 


D 


ON  BELTR  AN  and  Gonzalo  had  been    « 
hard  at  work  since  three  o'clock  this 


morning;  and  now  at  nine  were  come  out  of 


the  stifling  hole  to  rest  their  lungs  a  while.   ^ 
Their  faces  were  unlike  any  mask  of  humani-  Ra{n  />» 
ty,  grotesquely  malformed  with  the  persistent 
dust.     But  though  a  stranger  to  the  country 
would  very  probably  have  fled  at  first  sight 
of  those  demoniac  visages,  a  second  glance 
would  have  reassured,  and  even  won  him. 
Through  all  the  disguise,  hope  and  weari- 
[*?] 


The  ness,  excitement  and  awe,  looked  out  their 

Gold  Fish  full  humanity. 

of  Gran        "Praised  be  God!  "  the  old  man  was  mur- 

Chimu  muring,  half  to  himself.  "  So  He  did  not 
desert  us.  Ah,  if  only  thy  poor  little  mother 
might  have  waited  with  us,  that  she  might 
know  her  son  was  not  cursed  to  be  a  pauper !  " 
"  Pobrecita  dc  mi  mama  !  She  would  be 
better  than  ten  Peces  Grandes  I  But  perhaps 
He  will  let  her  to  know  —  and  how  she  will 
smile,  when  she  looks  down  and  sees  the 
Moche  free !  This  little  one  I  saved  to  build 
an  altar  for  her,  when  the  house  is  recom- 
posed."  Gonzalo  drew  from  his  pocket  a 
small  head  of  massive  gold,  a  pound  in 
weight.  The  rest  of  their  trophies  were  laid 
up  in  a  niche  just  inside  the  shaft  —  a  dozen 
large  golden  vases,  and  twice  as  many  of 
silver. 

"And  is  there  yet  enough  to  quiet  the 
usurer?  "  he  continued,  affectionately  weigh 
ing  his  own  particular  prize  in  a  slender, 
grimy  fist. 

"  Nor  the  third  of  it.  Still,  at  the  rate  at 
which  we  have  come  this  morning,  two  days 
more  will  do  it  —  for  that  treasure  enough  is 


in  there,  I  make  no  doubt.  But  come.  "And 
Rest  is  good,  and  even  needful;  but  we  shall  this  is 
rest  the  better  when  Moche  is  nearer  in  our  what 
hands.  Come,  hijo."  they  call 

The  old  man  rose,  straightening  his  back  Rain !  " 
with  an  effort. 

"Hola,  DonBeltran!" 

They  were  just  dropping  into  the  shaft 
when  the  call  reached  them,  and  they  came 
back  out  of  the  dust.  The  Intendente  and 
a  couple  of  guards  had  reined  up  on  the 
bank. 

"I  come  to  advise,  friend,  that  we  just 
have  news.  Our  Congress  passed  the  huaca 
law  last  night;  and  if  you  are  to  go  on  hua- 
queando,  it  must  be  under  the  regulations, 
which  I  shall  be  glad  to  give  you  at  the  in- 
tendencia."  The  officer's  face  and  tone 
were  full  of  friendly  sympathy. 

Don  Beltran  went  gray  as  death.  Big 
drops  suddenly  stood  out  like  beads  upon 
his  forehead,  and  his  legs  seemed  to  be  giv 
ing  way.  Then,  gradually,  he  grew  to  his 
full  stature,  the  tired  old  shoulders  squaring 
back,  not  defiantly,  but  with  slow  uncon 
sciousness,  the  grizzled  head  turning  erect 


The  and  steady.     He  looked  up  at  the  Intendente 

Gold  Fish  for  a  moment,  and  then  said,  so  very  slowly, 

of  Gran    clearly,  softly  that  a  woman  would  have  wept 

Chimu       at  hearing   that  voice:  "I   give   you  most 

thanks,  Don  Pedro.     I  shall  either  dig  no 

more,  or  comply  fully.     And  for  the  past? 

We  have  already  found   articles  of  great 

worth,  this  morning  —  since  the  law  became 

law,  and  perhaps  something  after  its  hour, 

last  night.     It  is  all  here,  —  for  we  have  not 

left  the  spot,  — and  all  at  your  orders." 

Don  Pedro  de  Villazur  looked  earnestly  at 
the  slender,  erect  old  figure,  and  his  eyes 
kindled.  "By  St.  lago!"  he  cried  impul 
sively.  "There  are  still  men  in  Peru! 
Look  you,  then,  Don  Beltran.  I  know  not 
how  one  of  our  sainted  courts  might  read 
the  law,  but  as  far  as  now  /  am  its  judge. 
There  needs  no  witness  to  tell  that  you  first 
hear  the  news  from  me.  Then  I  rule  that 
what  you  have  done  before  the  law  was 
announced  in  the  Gran  Chimu  makes  no 
count.  It  is  yours  —  and  I  but  wish  I  could 
in  honor  say  as  much  for  afterward.  But 
now  the  law  is  here,  I  shall  enforce  it  to  the 
letter.  So  if  you  wish  to  continue,  I  must 


ask  you  to  wait  until  I  can  send  the  under-  "And 
stood  detail  of  soldiers."  this  is 

"  No,  sir,  and  friend  of  mine,  I  shall  dig  what 
no  further.     To  what  purpose,  under  such  a  they  call 
law?"  Rain!" 

"  You  have  reason.  Neither  would  I.  So 
far  as  touches  my  office,  you  know  you  could 
expect  justice;  but  when  your  treasures 
should  once  have  gone  to  Lima — pues,  you 
know  our  friends  the  officials." 

Don  Beltran  stood  watching  the  Intendente 
as  he  rode  off.  Then  he  sank  upon  a  hum 
mock  of  earth,  and  drew  his  arm  gently 
about  the  sobbing  boy,  smoothing  the  jetty 
hair  mechanically.  "  Oyes  I "  he  called 
huskily  to  a  peon  just  emptying  his  zurron 
from  the  mouth  of  the  shaft.  "  Now  it  is  to 
stop.  The  digging  is  finished." 

"  But,  Se'or, "  ventured  the  laborer.  "  They 
are  even  now  uncovering  a  large  bulto 
which  —  " 

"It  imports  not,"  the  old  man  answered 
gently.  "  Leap  in  and  bid  them  drop  it  and 
cease  work  on  the  instant."  Then  his  head 
drooped  again. 

Gonzalo  lifted  his  stained  face  and  broke 
[07] 


The  out,  between  sobs,  "It's  a  wi-wicked  law,  — 

Gold  Fish  a  law  of  fools  and  thieves,  as  said  the  Se'or 
of  Gran    Bullfighter,  —  and  it  ought  to  be  b-broken, 
Chimu        I  say ! " 

"No,  sonling!  No  law  is  so  wicked  it 
should  be  broken.  True  is  it,  what  Don 
Carlos  says;  but  he  also  will  respect  it  — 
and  so  shall  we." 

"But  just  when  we  were  to  sa-save  our 
dear  Moche !  And  now  it  will  be  lost !  " 

"  Even  as  God  will,  soul  of  my  heart.  I 
had  hoped  He  would  permit  us  —  but  — 
but  —  "  Then,  in  spite  of  him,  the  brave, 
gentle  voice  broke,  and  laying  his  head  to 
Gonzalo's  he  sobbed  heartbrokenly. 

"  Tstl  Tst,  friends ! "  rang  a  cheery  cry 
—  and  the  Maestro  was  hauling  at  them. 
"  Come  up,  sons !  "  He  laughed,  tugging 
their  arms  with  affected  roughness  —  and  for 
their  own  tears  they  could  not  see  the  mist 
in  his  eyes.  ' 

"  Come  for  home,  you  tired  huaqueros  !  " 
he  went  on.  "  When  I  got  a  despatch  from 
the  Secretary  of  the  Chamber,  we  thought  of 
you,  and  now  I  have  come  for  you.  But  you 
must  see  our  poor  Don  Carlos.  Some  one 
[<#] 


set  upon  him  after  he  left  you  last  night,  and   "And 
killed  him  —  only,  as  you  might  know,  he's  this  is 
too  obstinate  to  admit  it.     But  he  is  a  sorry  what 
sight,  and  needs  better  nurses  than  I  am.    they  call 
Vamos?    To  be  sure  —  let  me  carry  some  of  Rain!" 
the  plunder.     So!     All  that?     At  the  least, 
I  can  give  you  better  prices  for  them  than 
you  could  get  from  the  Jews  or  the  melting- 
pot.     Here  will   be  four   or  five  thousand 
soles,  I  should  say." 

Don  Beltran  looked  at  him  half  dreamily. 
"You  are  too  good!  But  it  avails  not. 
Five  soles,  or  five  thousand,  it  is  all  the 
same  —  since  it  is  not  twenty  thousand." 

A  week  from  that  day,  the  Bullfighter  was 
coming  out  of  the  Hotel  Cosmos  and  turning 
down  the  Calle  del  Progreso.  He  was  still 
very  pale,  and  his  step  lacked  its  old  spring; 
but  his  eyes  were  clear.  At  the  corner  of 
the  plaza  he  ran  up  against  a  stalwart  zambo. 
The  negro  started  to  brush  him  aside  —  and 
then  recoiled,  staring  at  him-  in  evident  terror. 

"Ah,  my  lamb!"  drawled  the  American, 
sardonically.  "  No,  I  am  not  a  ghost.  And 
welcome,  thou !  I  looked  to  meet  thee,  but 


not  so  soon.     I  thought  it  was  the   cheek- 
Gold Fish  bone,  by  the  feel  of  my  knuckles." 
of  Gran        "  Se'or !     Of  what  talk  you  ?     I  never  saw 
Chimu       Your  Grace  before ! " 

"  Perhaps  not — but  felt  me,  no  ?  Thinkest 
thou  that  I  sign,  and  afterward  know  not  my 
ovmfirma  ?  And  I  trust  thy  fellow  is  as  well 
bewritten,  eh?  My  left  hand  seemed  to 
deal  with  a  nose.  But  I  have  joy  to  meet 
thee  and  understand  —  for  before,  I  was  at  a 
loss.  I  remember  thee  at  the  hacienda  of 
Viscaino.  Tell  then  thy  master  Don  Bias, 
for  me,  that  I  am  not  feeble  for  long,  and 
that  if  he  would  try  me  again  he  had  best 
hasten,  ere  I  get  strong.  And  thou  —  go 
with  God,  lest  I  sign  the  other  cheek,  to  bal 
ance  that  ugly  page." 

As  the  negro  slunk  away,  there  was  a  touch 
on  the  Bullfighter's  elbow — which  was  turned 
out  in  a  peculiar  fashion  you  never  see  in 
those  whose  intentions  are  wholly  peaceable. 
He  wheeled  as  if  to  meet  an  attack  —  and 
dropped  his  hand  to  his  side  with  a  swift  smile. 
"  Gonzalo,  my  boy !  But  shameless !  Here 
I've  been  in  the  bed  six  days,  without  a  word 
of  thee." 

[700] 


"  No,  friend  —  shame  I  have !     But  it  was  "And 
not  fault  of  mine.     My  father  is  very  sick,   this  is 
and  I  have  not  left  him  till  now.     When  what 
they  brought  you  to  the  hotel,  we  carried  him  they  call 
to  Moche  —  for  he  was  always  crying  out  for  Rain  I n 
it  in  his  fever.    If  you  and  the  Maestro  could 
but  come !     For  he  ever  thinks  on  you." 

"Understood  that  I  will  come,  and  now. 
The  Maestro,  too,  when  he  shall  return  from 
Lima,  whither  he  went  by  this  morning's 
steamer." 

"And  that  zambo,  Se'or?  For  he  is  the 
same  who  has  thrice  interrogated  me  touch 
ing  our  luck  at  digging;  and  I  saw  that  he 
was  strangely  maltreated  in  one  side  of  the 
face  —  as  if  it  had  caved  in,  and  with  three 
purple  cuts  in  a  line,  the  middle  one  longest." 

The  Bullfighter  closed  his  right  hand  till 
the  knuckles  stood  sharp,  and  extended  it. 
Gonzalo  nodded, with  a  sudden  light. 

"So,  he  was  with  them  that  laid  wood  to 
Your  Grace's  head !  But  he  not,  I'll  engage. 
Then  it  is  to  thank  Don  Bias  for  all  that 
cowardly  crime  —  we  thought  of  him.  And 
it  is  he,  too,  who  is  so  concerned  touching 
what  we  found  in  the  huaca." 


The  "Well,  he  is  not  dangerous.     But  come 

Gold  Fish  back  to  the  hotel,  and  we  will  take  horses  — 
of  Gran    for  when  your   Peruvian  sun  breaks  out  I 
Chimu       can't  trust  this  second-hand  head  to  walking 
under  it." 

They  had  ridden  down  the  last  streets  of 
Truxillo  and  out  between  the  ponderous 
adobe  fences  of  the  cornfields,  rather  in 
silence.  Then  the  Bullfighter  turned  to  his 
companion. 

"And?  What  are  the  plans  now?  Does 
thy  father  think  to  dig  still,  under  the  new 
law?" 

"No,  Se'or,  it  is  useless.  He  talked  it 
much  with  the  Se'or  Maestro  and  the  Se'or 
Intendente,  and  all  agree  that  to  dig  under 
the  law  is  only  to  be  robbed.  I  think  that 
is  his  sickness.  There  is  no  longer  any  honest 
way  to  gain  twenty  thousand  soles  ;  and  so  in 
a  few  days  Moche  will  be  gone  from  us.  He 
is  brave,  and  says  nothing  when  he  is  not  in 
the  fever,  and  then  he  talks  of  it  all  the  time, 
and  that  I  am  a  pauper.  It  avails  not  for 
much  that  I  tell  him  to  have  him  is  riches 
all  I  want.  He  does  not  hear,  and  only 
cries:  'Seventy  and  five  years  with  these 


hands  untiring  —  and  then  to  leave  my  only  "And 
child  a  beggar ! '  "  this  is 

"  Dear,  brave  old  man !     If  ever  one  man-   what 
fully  earned  success,  he  has  —  and  hard  it  is   they  calf 
to  see  him  cheated  out  of  it.     I  can  under-  Rain  /  " 
stand  how  he  feels  about  the  old  hacienda. 
Even  if  it  had  not  been  in  the  family  for 
three  centuries,  it  is  a  place  that  even  a  new 
owner  would  hate  to  give  up.     And  we  are 
on  the  Moche  now,  no?  " 

"Not  yet,  Se'or  —  about  ten  paces  farther. 
Here  the  line  runs  along  yonder  bank  of  the 
arroyo,  and  thence  to  yonder  peak,  going 
some  three  hundred  paces  this  side  of  the 
great  huaca." 

"  So !  Then  you  own  the  whole  pyramid 
of  Moche. —  the  Huaca  of  the  Sun!  " 

".Si",  Se'or.  But  it  does  us  nothing.  Only, 
that  I  love  it  —  to  climb  up  and  down,  and 
to  sit  upon  its  top  where  the  pagans  made 
sacrifice,  and  to  think  of  the  old  days." 

The  trail  led  under  the  very  foot  of  the 
great  pyramid.  It  is  eight  hundred  feet  long 
and  nearly  five  hundred  wide,  and  the  top 
rises  two  hundred  feet  in  the  air. 

"Ay !     But   so   many  years   as   it   must 


The  have    taken   the   antiguos   to   build   it,    no, 

Gold  Fish  Se'or?" 

of  Gran        "  Verily !  I  made  a  rough  measurement  the 

Chimu  other  day.  There  are  like  two  and  a  third 
millions  of  tons  of  masonry  in  that  pyramid 
now  —  and  it  used  to  be  somewhat  greater. 
Lucky  that  this  coast  is  so  dry,  or  the  ages 
would  have  left  little  of  this  wonder." 

"  A  thing  strange,  no  ?  And  you  say  that 
in  your  country,  in  the  States  Uniteds,  it 
rains  every  year?  Then  you  need  not  irri 
gate.  But  in  this  poor  my  Peru,  never.  In 
the  mountains,  yes,  but  that  is  far;  and  they 
have  told  me  of  great  storms  in  the  Ama- 
zonas.  But  here  in  the  Coast  — pues,  I  have 
fifteen  years,  and  /  have  never  seen  it.  It 
must  be  a  thing  good  to  look  upon,  no? 
The  water  falling  from  the  sky  in  round 
drops,  they  say  —  even  like  great,  pitying 
tears  of  Our  Father.  And  you  have  seen  it 
rain?" 

The  Bullfighter  smiled  across  to  the  eager 
face.  "  And  felt  it,  and  slept  in  it,  many  a 
night.  Aye,  and  if  this  were  anywhere  but 
the  West  Coast,  I  should  say  you'll  see  rain 
before  you  go  to  bed,"  he  added,  rising  in 


the  saddle.  "  See  yon  black  front  of  cloud  "And 
scowling  behind  Salaverry  ?  That  has  rain  this  is 
in  its  heart,  or  its  face  is  a  liar."  what 

"But  it  cannot  rain  here,  I  think,  Se'or."   they  call 

"Oh,  yes  it  can.  Your  father  remembers  Rain!" 
a  rain  about  twenty-five  years  ago;  and  the 
walls  of  the  Gran  Chimu  show  rain-carving 
plainly.  In  the  old  records  I  have  read  of 
several  hard  rain-storms  on  the  coast  of  Peru 
—  and  one  in  1730  destroyed  the  town  of 
Paita,  so  fierce  was  it." 

"Well,  I  would  not  that  it  destroy  any 
thing  —  but  oh,  to  see  it  rain,  the  very  hard 
est  it  knows !  It  must  be  a  wonder !  And 
does  it  fall  from  all  the  sky,  or  only  leaking 
in  places?  Falling  from  so  high,  it  must 
hurt,  no  ?  But  mark  that  cloud,  how  it  gal 
lops  across  all  the  heaven !  I  have  never  seen 
it  so.  Even  the  fog  comes  more  slowly." 

Their  horses  had  turned  through  the  wil 
lows,  crossing  a  little  bridge  over  the  irri 
gating  ditch,  and  quickened  their  pace 
toward  the  long,  low,  white  building  half 
hidden  among  its  tropic  trees.  A  servant 
took  the  animals  to  the  stable,  while  Gonzalo 
conducted  his  friend  through  the  arched  halls 


The  and  into  a  broad,  high  room.    "  Here  he  is, 

Gold  Fish  fata,"  he  whispered  at  the  bedside;  and  tip- 
of  Gran    toeing  out,  closed  the  door,  leaving  the  old 
Chimu       man  and  the  younger  one  clasping  hands  and 
looking  into  one  another's  eyes. 

When  Chenta  shuffled  into  the  room  half 
an  hour  later  to  remove  the  chocolate  cups, 
she  was  all  a-quake.  "  Save  me,  heaven !  " 
she  stammered,  crossing  herself.  "  But  this 
will  be  the  end  of  the  world !  Water  is  fall 
ing  from  all  the  sky,  and  swift  lights  go 
everywhere ! " 

"  It  is  but  rain,  child, "  said  the  old  man, 
gently.  "Twice  have  I  seen  it,  since  I  was 
born  in  Moche,  and  there  is  no  fear.  Storm, 
then,  sky !  But  for  me  the  clearer  weather  —  " 
and  his  eyes  turned  to  the  Bullfighter. 
"Where  is  Gonzalo?  Send  him  hither,  that 
he  may  know  who  shall  stand  in  my  place  to 
him  when  I  am  gone. " 

"Who  knows,  Se'or?  He  went  out  just  be 
fore  the  tempest." 

"There  is  no  fear,  Don  Beltran,"  put  in 

the  American.     "He  has  but  gone  to  enjoy 

his   first  rain.     He  was   greatly  interested 

when  I  told  him  about  it,  and  now  he  means 

\_io6-] 


to  prove  it  for  himself.     But  I  wonder  how  "And 
he  will  enjoy  that !  "    Just  then  the  shuttered   this  is 
room  was  pierced  with  a  tremendous  glare;   what 
and  in  a  moment  an  avalanche  of  thunder  they  call 
rocked  the  earth.  Rain  !  " 

The  small,  drenched  figure  squatted  upon 
the  very  crest  of  the  Pyramid  of  Moche 
could  himself  hardly  have  told  at  first  "  how 
he  liked  that."  As  to  the  torrent  from  the 
clouds,  there  was  no  question.  It  was  as 
glorious  as  it  was  wonderful.  And  this  was 
what  they  call  Rain !  To  think  that  the  sky 
could  drop  such  a  deluge !  There  certainly 
must  be  an  ocean  up  there  —  and  how  could 
so  much  water  come  overhead  ?  He  had  run 
about  in  sturdy  glory  under  the  pelting  down 
pour —  shouting  —  trying  to  catch  those  swift 
drops  and  see  what  they  looked  like  —  up 
turning  his  face  to  trap  them  in  his  mouth, 
and  sputtering  with  delight  at  the  choky  full 
ness  of  his  success.  If  it  would  only  rain 
oftener  in  Peru !  Not  just  once  in  a  life 
time,  but  every  year,  as  it  did  in  happier 
lands,  —  and  maybe  even  more  than  once  in 
a  year,  by  the  way  Don  Carlos  spoke ! 


The  But  when  for  the  first  time  in  his  life, 

Gold  Fish  too,  he  saw  the  sky  split  by  a  swift  red  blade 
of  Gran  of  light,  and  heard  the  sundered  halves  come 
Chimu  together  again  with  a  crash  that  made  the 
pyramid  shiver,  he  was  scared  very  nearly 
out  of  his  wits.  That,  however,  was  not  for 
long.  Finding  that  this  blind  light  and  ap 
palling  roar  passed  without  harming  him,  he 
jumped  less  at  the  second  bolt,  and  at  the 
third  hardly  at  all.  It  was  rather  sudden  to 
the  nerves,  yes  —  but  —  but  —  well,  he  began 
to  believe  this  was  quite  as  much  fun  as  the 
rain  itself;  and  in  a  few  minutes  more  he 
was  again  trotting  up  and  down  the  level 
"platform"  of  the  pyramid's  top,  stopping 
now  to  catch  the  deep  growl  of  the  lions  of 
the  sky,  now  shouting  with  delight  when  a 
glare  of  lightning  flung  across  his  high  look 
out  his  own  vast  shadow,  so  swiftly  come,  so 
swiftly  swallowed  back  by  the  gloom,  that 
he  knew  it  must  be  magic. 

The  rain  was  coming  down,  now,  in  very 
waves.  It  drummed  on  the  adobe  with  the 
sway  and  roar  of  a  rising  surf.  By  the  flashes 
he  could  see  wavering  pools,  that  ran  to 
gether,  and  blinked  on  the  dark  edge,  and 
[**] 


leaped  off  down  the  precipitous  side  in  sud-  "And 
den  whiteness.  this  is 

Hm !     But  it  must  be  well  night !     And  —  what 
his  father  ?     Pricked  with  shame  at  having  they  call 
forgotten  everything  but  the  storm,  he  turned  Rain  !  " 
and  went  scrambling  down  at  a  point  on  the 
west  where  the  pyramid  was  not  quite  so  in 
accessible.     The  rain-flood  swished  around 
his  bare  legs,  tugging  at  them.    The  drenched 
adobe  set  his  feet  to  sliding.     He  flung  up 
his   arms,    lurching  to   get  balance.     And 
suddenly  above  the  storm  he  heard  a  strange, 
gurgling  roar,  as  of  a  gigantic  suction;  the 
earth  gave  way  underfoot,  and  in  a  smother 
of  mud  and  water  Gonzalo  went  whirling 
into  the  abyss. 


CHAPTER  VII 
Gonzalo's    "String" 

TT  7 HEN  midnight  had  come  to  Moche, 
Gold  Fish     **      anc^  no  Gonzalo,  it  was  clear  some- 
of  Gran     thing  must  be  done.   For  two  hours  the  Bull- 
Chimu        fighter  had    been  frequently  reassuring    the 
fevered  old  man.     "No  hay  cuidado"  he 
kept  saying.    "You  must  remember  that  the 
lad  never  before  saw  the  rain,  and  now  is 


carried  away  with  it.      But  as  for  harm —    Gonzalo's 
pooh,  he  is  too  hombrote  to  get  into  trouble."   "String" 

But  at  last  the  comforter  grew  anxious, 
too.  For  a  Spanish  boy,  of  Gonzalo's  bring 
ing  up,  to  be  out  thus  meant  something,  he 
knew.  And  presently  he  said:  " Pues,  Don 
Beltran,  since  you  have  anxiety,  I  will  go  to 
look.  Only  that  you  promise  to  sleep,  and 
leave  it  to  me.  I  will  answer  for  the  boy. 
Until  soon,  then ! " 

The  storm  was  over,  when  he  descended 
the  veranda  and  mounted  his  horse.  Now 
and  then  a  dingy  star  glimmered  in  the  leaden 
sky.  The  only  sound  abroad  was  the  swish 
of  running  waters  everywhere.  The  horse 
slowly  picked  its  way  to  the  acequia  and 
over  the  little  bridge ;  and  now  the  rider  sat 
higher  in  the  saddle,  trying  to  pierce  the 
gloom. 

"  I  have  a  notion  that  he  went  to  the  big 
Pyramid.  He  spoke  of  his  fondness  for  it 
—  and  that's  the  lookout  I'd  choose,  if  /were 
a  boy.  To  see !  " 

It  was  ticklish  going.  The  sidling  trail 
was  gullied  everywhere,  and  slippery  as  ice. 
The  horse,  whose  very  grandsire  was  too 


The  young  to  have  seen  a  rain  in  Peru,  was  em- 

Gold  Fish  barrassed  in  hoof  and  mind  by  this  astounding 
of  Gran    departure  from  his  traditions  of  eternal  bone- 
Chimu       dry  sand.     But  finding  himself  held  up  and 
not  jerked  up  when  he  would  fall,  and  warm 
ing    to    certain    confidential    pattings,    he 
struggled  along  very  creditably  for  an  ani 
mal  first  experiencing  so  serious  a  phenom 
enon  as  this  sudden  trickiness  of  the  earth 
underfoot. 

"So!  Here's  the  huaca!"  The  Bull 
fighter  reined  up,  where  a  deeper  blackness 
towered  against  the  night.  "From  here  I 
reckon  the  old  man  will  not  be  made  ner 
vous  by  hearing  me.  Gonzalo !  Gonza-a-lo ! " 
But  there  was  no  answer.  Only  the  rivu 
lets,  still  stumbling  down  the  pyramid,  rustled 
in  the  hush.  He  called  again;  listened,  and 
rode  on.  In  this  wet  air  a  yell  from  such 
lungs  should  carry  at  least  a  mile.  Clearly, 
then,  there  was  no  need  to  ride  around  the 
huaca.  That  is  —  unless  —  well,  what  if  the 
boy  were  hurt  somehow,  and  though  hearing, 
could  not  make  himself  heard?  Better  see, 
anyhow  —  and  they  went  slipping,  slewing, 
stumbling,  splashing  around  the  broken  flanks 


of  that  vast  pile  of  clay  brick.      Once  the    Gonzalo's 
horse  came  down  headlong  in  a  big  pool   "String" 
through  which  ran  a  current  so  strong  that 
only  by  a  desperate  struggle  they  got  out. 

"Eh,  but  this  is  new!  Can  the  acequia 
have  broken  ?  But  no  —  it  was  running  full 
at  the  house.  This  looks  to  come  from  the 
huaca  itself !  However,  we  shall  not  know 
in  this  darkness.  I'll  try  the  town,  if  per 
chance  some  one  shall  have  seen  him  there." 

Truxillo,  of  course,  was  sound  asleep  — 
as  is  every  well-regulated  Peruvian  town,  long 
before  such  uncanny  hours.  The  four  cholo 
soldier-police,  scattered  over  the  city  —  no, 
they  had  seen  nothing  of  the  young  Quesada. 
Si,  Senor,  they  knew  him.  But  he  had  not 
been  in  Truxillo  since  they  took  their  beats. 

At  daybreak  the  searcher  was  riding  back 
to  Moche,  mud-beplastered  and  undeniably 
worried.  He  had  scouted  clear  to  the  Gran 
Chimu,  questioning  every  one  he  could 
waken,  and  shouting  himself  hoarse  along 
deserted  roads.  What  could  he  say  to  the 
wan  old  man  awaiting  him? 

The  gray  of  a  Peruvian  "  winter  "  dawn  was 
on  the  gaunt  peaks  of  Salaverry.  Even  the 


The  great  Pyramid  of  Moche  had  caught  lights  not 

Gold  Fish  yet  vouchsafed  the  valley;  and  its  lofty  bulk 
of  Gran    seemed  rejuvenated  by  the  night  —  its  wrin- 
Ch!viu       kles  smoothed  away,  and  half  its  centuries 
forgotten. 

"  But  /  would  have  gone  to  the  huaca,  if  I 
were  a  boy  wanting  to  get  the  most  of  my 
first  rain !  How  it  must  have  pelted,  upon 
that  top,  eh?  I'm  a  fool  —  understood! 
But  I'm  going  around  by  daylight." 

The  tired  horse  clearly  agreed  with  the 
premise,  and  left  the  trail  only  under  com 
pulsion.  His  knees  were  trembling  with  so 
long  a  fight  for  a  footing;  and  when  he  came 
to  a  deep,  broad  gully  he  halted  resolutely. 

"Pause  and  consider,  then,"  smiled  the 
rider,  patiently.  "  And  this  must  be  the  hole 
we  measured  last  night.  A  wonder  we  ever 
got  out  —  for  by  the  mark  the  water,  ran  ten 
feet  deep  here,  with  four  more  to  the  top  of 
the  bank.  But  where  on  earth  did  it  come 
from  ?  Stand  and  study,  eh,  while  I  go  see  " ; 
and  dismounting,  he  strode  away  up  the 
arroyo. 

Around  a  knee  of  the  pyramid  —  whose 
base  is  shaped  something  like  the  letter  L  — 


the  gully  led;  and  there  at  the  bottom  was  Gonzalo's 
a  ragged  cave  running  far  back  in  the  adobe  "String" 
masonry. 

"  Snails !  A  stream  from  under  the  huaca? 
Ah,  yes  —  I  see.  The  watershed  of  this 
whole  side  drained  into  yonder  angle  and 
burrowed  down  into  the  mound  at  that  sink 
hole  I  see  half-way  up,  and  broke  out  again 
here  at  the  base.  But  say !  There  must  have 
been  a  hollow  in  the  pyramid,  or  it  never 
could  have  done  that  —  solid  adobe  masonry 
isn't  to  be  made  a  fool  of,  even  by  a  cloud 
burst.  I'm  going  to  look  into  that  hole  up 
there ! " 

What?  You  would  like  to  find  Gonzalo  — 
this  Bullfighter  is  too  slow?  Well,  we  are 
coming  to  the  boy. 

Twelve  hours  ago  when  he  felt  the  very 
earth  open  its  mouth  and  swallow  him,  he 
would  not  have  given  much  for  his  chances 
of  being  found.  It  was  all  so  sudden  and 
so  —  so  impossible !  The  solid  ground,  mind 
you,  yawning  —  and  in  the  same  instant  a 
torrent  pounced  upon  him  and  strangled  him. 
He  could  not  see,  nor  cry  out,  nor,  worst  of 


The  all,  think.    All  was,  he  knew  himself  falling 

Gold  Fish  — falling  —  falling —  !  Then  there  was  a 
of  Gran  stunning  plunge  into  a  body  of  water,  and  he 
Chimu  went  down,  fathoms,  till  his  ears  were  burst 
ing;  and  came  up  so  slowly  that  it  seemed 
four  times  as  deep.  But  at  last  the  air  roared 
in  his  face,  and  he  was  shoved  against  a  wall, 
the  current  lifting  and  tugging  to  carry  him 
over.  For  a  few  moments  he  clung  there 
stupidly,  his  arms  to  the  elbows  on  the  dam, 
his  feet  dangling  in  those  dreadful  depths  he 
had  sounded  so  far. 

Then,  as  breath  and  strength  and  heart 
came  back,  he  groped  forward  to  the  right, 
to  the  left,  overhead.  First,  it  was  to  be  un 
derstood  that  from  the  well  in  which  his  feet 
were,  a  strong  current  overflowed.  Ahead 
he  could  hear  it  hissing  downward  in  a  fash 
ion  that  meant  a  steep  descent;  and  louder, 
but  different,  was  the  roar  of  a  fall  overhead, 
whose  spray  pelted  his  hair  like  rain.  Up 
there  was  nothing  but  blackness.  Left  and 
right  was  a  continuation  of  the  shelf  against 
which  the  current  pressed  his  waist.  To  see ! 
He  hunched  along  cautiously  to  the  left, 
keeping  his  elbows  well  bent  and  his  chin 

[7/d] 


thrown  back,  lest  that  mill  race  tip  him  Gonzalo's 
headlong.  A  foot,  two,  three,  four  feet, —  "String" 
and  suddenly  he  drew  back  from  a  stronger 
suction.  Clearly,  the  water  was  making  a 
breach  there  in  its  dam.  He  reached  out 
and  overhead  —  nothing.  Then  he  rested 
carefully  on  his  left  arm,  and  with  the 
right  flung  a  handful  of  water.  So!  In 
spite  of  the  roar  of  the  falls  he  was  sure 
his  fluid  missile  had  struck  earth,  not  water. 
The  cave  must  end  there,  and  it  was  use 
less  to  go  further.  To  the  right,  then.  He 
hunched  back,  with  the  same  slow  cau 
tion.  One  foot,  two  feet,  a  yard;  two  yards 
three,  four.  Ah!  His  shoulder  rubbed 
against  something  hard!  A  cautious  hand 
went  up.  •  Glory !  A  foot  above  his  head 
was  a  shelf  of  solid  adobe.  Trembling  and 
half  crying,  now,  he  drew  himself  slowly  up 
till  one  knee  was  on  the  dam;  and  with  a 
wild  lunge  flung  himself  clear  of  the  water 
and  upon  the  safe  ledge.  He  did  not  even 
grope  about  to  see  how  large  his  shelf  might 
be;  but  cuddling  as  small  as  he  could,  lay 
there,  panting.  It  would  be  as  foolish  as 
false  to  pretend  that  this  fifteen  year  old  boy 
["73 


The  was  not  in  mortal  terror.     So  may  all  men  be 

Gold  Fish  — unless  it  is  true,  as  themselves  claim,  that 

of  Gran    there  are  some  fools  so  absolute  that  they 

Chitnu       really  do  "not  know  what  fear  is."    But  there 

are  different  kinds  of  cowards.     Some,  when 

they  look  in  the  eye  of  Death  fall  groveling 

in  the  dust  that  they  may  not  see  him  smite; 

and  some  there  are  that  tremble  and  are  pale, 

but  take  their  coward  hearts  in  their  teeth  to 

die  like  men,  fighting.     And  Gonzalo  was 

one  of  these.     Through  all  this  horror  his 

mind  had  worked  clearly  and  swiftly;  and 

his  will  had  held  the  trembling  body  up  to 

its  work. 

But  now  he  was  worn  out;  and  for  hours  he 
lay  huddled  there  in  a  shivering  heap.  The 
spray  kept  him  drenched  —  and  yet  to  his 
nostrils  came  a  strange  odor  of  dust.  The 
pouring  waters  filled  the  gloom  with  a  won 
derful  monotony  —  without  rise  or  fall  of 
sound. 

The  hours  crept  by.  The  exhausted  boy 
was  breathing  deeply  and  regularly,  except 
for  now  and  then  a  fit  of  coughing. 

"Let  be!     It  is  mine  —  the  Fez — "  and 
he  sat  up  with  a  start.     "  Ah-h-h !  I  —  I  shall 
[XT*] 


have  been  dreaming !  I  thought  I  had  found  Gonzalo'? 
it  —  and  here  I  am  in  this  grave!  Pero,  "String" 
there  it  is  lighter ! " 

And  indeed  there  was,  far  up  at  the  top  of 
his  night,  a  queer,  jagged  patch  of  gray. 
As  he  sat  and  watched,  it  slowly  grew  clearer 
—  and  presently  he  cried  out  excitedly : "  The 
sky!  The  good  sky!" 

Deeper  and  deeper  the  light  crept  down 
into  his  profound  prison,  until  even  a  little 
ray  of  sunlight  flaunted  upon  the  left-hand 
wall,  away  overhead;  and  now  he  could  see 
well  enough  to  begin  to  explore. 

First,  then,  that  little  peephole  of  sky  was 
something  like  fifty  feet  above  him,  and  its 
diameter  maybe  two  yards.  The  walls  were 
wet,  but  no  more  water  was  pouring  in.  At 
his  feet  was  the  black  pool  which  had  cush 
ioned  his  fearful  fall,  now  merely  brimming 
at  the  dam.  At  ten  feet  over  his  head  the 
cavity  suddenly  widened,  and  he  could  make 
out  a  great  room,  with  arched  roof,  running 
forty  feet  to  the  left,  and  with  dark  recesses 
in  the  farther  wall.  Where  the  "  well "  over 
flowed  looked  to  have  been  a  low,  narrow 
passageway,  sloping  strongly  downwards. 


The  He  reached  over  and  felt  —  clear!     There 

Gold  Fish  were  adobe  steps,  worn  but  not  obliterated 
of  Gran    by  the  waters  which,  for  a  dozen  hours,  had 
Chimu       been  tumbling  down  that  secret  staircase  in 
the  heart  of  the  huaca. 

Gonzalo  had  been  groping  and  peering 
like  the  half -drowned  rat  he  was;  and  now 
he  rose  stiffly  to  cross  the  strange,  dim 
chamber.  A  few  feet  away  the  adobe  floor 
was  already  less  slippery;  and  he  saw  that  the 
wall,  two  feet  from  the  floor,  was  dusty !  And 
yonder  recess,  which  looked  like  an  alcove  — 

In  another  ten  minutes,  if  a  stranger  could 
have  been  set  down  in  the  heart  of  the  Pyra 
mid  of  Moche,  he  would  have  seen  a  drag 
gled  boy  rushing  to  and  fro  in  that  musty 
catacomb  like  one  bereft  of  reason;  now  dis 
appearing  in  a  dark  passage,  and  then  stag 
gering  out  again,  hauling  or  rolling  a  great 
burden;  and  all  the  while  uttering  strange, 
inarticulate  cries.  The  beholder  would  have 
concluded  either  that  he  was  enjoying  a 
most  extraordinary  dream,  or  that  this  sub 
terranean  chamber  was  inhabited  by  the 
craziest  of  all  gnomes. 


Just  as  he  ceased  clawing  at  one  of  these    Gonzalo's 
mysterious  loads,  the  gnome  chanced  to  look   "String" 
up  at  that  far  little  eye  of  sky  —  and  on  the 
instant  went  still  crazier. 

"Don  Carlos!  Amigol  I  am  / — / — 
//" 

Up  there  at  the  brink  was  the  silhouette 
of  a  round  head  and  smooth  face  under  a 
broad  hat,  which  started  back  as  if  at  a  shot, 
and  then  reappeared. 

"  Como?  "  a  voice  came  falling  down  the 
pit.  "Thou,  my  little  Gonzalo?  Art  thou 
alive  or  dead?  Is  it  deep  as  it  sounds? 
But  hold,  while  I  fetch  my  reata  and  haul 
thee  up." 

"  No,  friend !  "  The  boy  voice  rang  shrill 
and  swiftly,  till  the  words  stumbled  on  one 
another's  heels.  "There  are  two  reatas* 
length,  at  the  least.  To  the  hacienda,  and 
bring  the  peons  —  all,  every  one.  And  my 
father,  too,  if  he  can  be  carried  on  shoulders. 
And  hasten,  before  I  turn  crazed  —  for  I 
have  Him  hooked,  Don  Carlos !  I  have  Him 
hooked  I  Tell  my  father  only:  'Gonzalo  is 
safe,  and  the  Moche  also ! '  And  hurrying  — 
for  it  is  too  much  to  be  borne ! " 


The  When  Don  Beltran  on  his  narrow  mattress 

Gold  Fish  had  been  set  down  by  strong-backed  peons 
of  Gran    beside  the  gaping  hole,  he  leaned  over  on  a 
Chimu       wavering  elbow  and  called  down  tremulously : 
"  Art  safe,  soul  of  my  heart?  "     And  whatever 
the  answer  that   floated  up  to  him,   it  was 
something  at  which  a  wondrous  smile  trans 
figured  his  wan  face. 

The  Bullfighter  was  paying  a  horse-hair 
rope  down  into  the  pit,  while  three  stout 
cholos  held  the  coil.  "Does  it  reach? "  he 
shouted.  "  Good !  Then  sit  on  the  cross- 
stick  and  hold  well." 

A  great  smooth  pole  had  been  laid  across 
the  opening,  to  pull  the  rope  over,  and  a 
man  anchored  down  each  end  of  it.  "Jd-le, 
then ! "  The  peons  walked  away  slowly, 
steadily,  with  the  reata  on  their  shoulders, 
while  the  Bullfighter  steadied  it  over  the 
pole.  Up  and  up  and  up  they  hauled,  till 
at  last  a  head  came  in  view.  But  it  was  not 
Gonzalo's  head;  and  Don  Carlos  and  Don 
Beltran  gasped  at  sight  of  it  —  that  big, 
round,  dented  head  of  reddish  metal,  and 
the  thick  neck  with  the  rope  knotted  upon 
it,  and  burly  shoulders,  and  a  strange,  rude 
[•Jlf] 


Up  and  up  they   hauled,  till  at  last  a  head  came 
in  view. 


body.     The  Bullfighter  stooped,  and  with  a    Gonzalo's 
great  heave  fetched  out  upon  the  ground  a  "String" 
statue  taller  than  himself  —  and  heavier,  too, 
though  it  was  hollow  from  head  to  toes.     He 
and  Don  Beltran  looked  in  one  another's 
eyes  without  a  word.     The  old  man  was  even 
paler   than  before.     He  leaned  over  again 
and  called  huskily :  — 

"  No,  sonling !  I  want  thee,  and  not  the 
idols !  Come  up  to  me,  Gonzalito  mio ! " 

Already  the  rope  was  on  its  way  down  again. 
This  time  it  returned  faster.  A  muddy  black 
head  came  twirling  up  to  the  daylight,  and 
two  eyes  that  shone  like  living  jet  blinked 
hard  at  Don  Beltran  and  then  at  the  Bull 
fighter;  and  in  a  second  more  there  was  such 
another  fuss  of  hugs  and  tears  and  broken 
voices  as  the  Pyramid  of  Moche  had  not  seen 
in  five  hundred  years,  if  ever. 

"And  the  Moche,  little  papa!  "  Gonzalo 
laughed  through  new  channels  on  his  muddy 
cheeks.  "  Ea  !  But  Our  Father  heard  me, 
no  ?  For  always  I  prayed  it  might  be  /  who 
should  save  you.  And  que guapo,  no?"  — 
dancing  around  the  great  golden  image. 
"  Much  face  is  the  face  of  him,  no  ?  Not 


The  many  like  him,  perhaps,  would  it  take  to 

Gold  Fish  stop  the  mouths  of  the  money-lenders?" 
of  Gran        "Few  indeed!"  answered  Don  Beltran, 
Chimu       softly.     "  Two,  when  most.     Ah,  he  is  pure 
gold ! "     But  he  was  not  looking  at  the  image 
so  much  as  at  a  shabby  boy  whose  face  was 
half  mud  and  half  twinkle. 

"  Two,  then  ?  Well,  papacito  —  I  have  ten ! 
Some  are  smaller,  a  little;  and  one,  in  its 
niche,  is  greater,  that  I  could  not  even  tip  it 
from  its  pedestal.  But  come,  let  me  go  down 
and  send  them  up." 

"  Never,  son !  It  is  the  peons  that  shall 
brave  the  pit,  and  not  thou  again." 

"Nor  needs  it,"  put  in  the  Bullfighter. 
"  If  I  mistake  not,  there  is  an  easier  way. 
The  water  which  opened  the  huaca  for  you 
—  where  that  water  came  out  must  be  the 
passage  I  saw  at  the  base.  It  was  the  proper 
way  to  enter  the  chamber  in  the  pyramid; 
and  when  the  ancients  closed  it  up,  they 
never  thought  of  two  such  burglars  as  a  rain 
and  Gonzalo  breaking  in  from  above.  I'll 
take  in  the  peons  with  lanterns,  and  we'll 
fetch  the  statues  down  the  stairs  they  were 
carried  up  so  long  ago.  But  to  think  that 


thou  shouldst  fall  thus  upon  the  secret  cham-    Gonzab's 

her  of  their  ancestral  gods !    Never  but  once  "String" 

in  the  world  has  such  a  thing  chanced  before 

—  and  that  was  three  hundred  and  sixty  years 

ago.     At  Cuzco,  in   1532,  the  conquerors 

found  in  a  subterranean  room  'life-size  golden 

figures,  four  of  llamas  and  twelve  of  women, 

the  which  to  see  was  a  great  comfort'  —  as  I 

mind  me  to  have  read  in  a  Relation  of  the 

First   Discovery.      And   now   thou!     Pucs, 

'when  least  one  thinks,  jumps  the  hare,'  they 

say  —  and  I  remember,  too,  that  when  I  used 

to  fish  for  trout,  they  always  bit  best  in  rainy 

weather.     It  seems  the  Big  Fish  of  Peru  have 

the  same  habits." 

The  old  Don's  face  was  sweet  with  a  great 
peace.  "I  give  thanks,"  he  said  reverently, 
"  not  alone  for  this,  but  that  I  did  not  dig 
secretly  in  our  mine  after  the  law  passed — 
and  the  temptation  was  sore." 

"Look  you  then  at  justice,"  smiled  the 
Bullfighter.  "  I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  last 
night,  hunting  the  boy,  I  learned  Don  Bias 
is  in  jail  for  that  very  thing  —  and  not  to 
come  out  soon.  He  was  huaqueando  secretly 
in  your  shaft,  and  the  Intendente  caught  him 


The  at  it.     But  you,  picaro, "  and  he  drew  his  arm 

Gold  Fish  about  Gonzalo,  "you  go  and  hook  your  Fez 
of  Gran    Grande  on  your  own  land  of  Moche,  where 
Chimu       not  even  the  laws  of  a  Peruvian  Congress  can 
rob  you  of  one  scale  of  him ! " 


h> 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


It- 


if^tvuDnni 

r«  UJ 


. 

a 


